Keith Baldrey, The Times Colonist

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

There was a lot of rejoicing recently when Environment Minister Barry Penner pulled the plug on the proposed mini-hydro development on the Upper Pitt River.

But those doing the celebrating are kidding themselves if they think the demise of this particular project means they've won a major victory. Instead, they've won a single battle in what could be a protracted war that is just getting started.

British Columbia has been the battleground for environmental protests in the past. Remember the so-called War of the Woods in the 1990s? That struggle over land use and forest practices garnered international attention, and the environmental movement rightly claimed victory.

Things have been fairly quiet recently, as the forest industry has dropped many of its destructive changes and most land-use decisions have been made.

But the controversy over the Upper Pitt may signal that the peace in the wilderness is about to end. This time the fight won't be between environmentalists and loggers but rather between the greens and energy companies, with First Nations groups aligned on either side.

The backdrop to this looming confrontation is the fact that B.C. needs more energy and more green power. B.C. Hydro said it needs to an additional 10,000 gigawatt hours of power by 2015.

Alternative energy sources - such as wind power, biomass and geothermal - are proposed in some areas of the province.

But the vast majority of proposed new energy projects are 'run-of-the-river' projects. They are usually small-scale ventures that take advantage of fast-running rivers and streams to generate hydroelectric power.

Most run-of-the-river projects produce a relatively small amount of power [enough to heat about 25,000 homes], so an obvious conclusion is B.C. Hydro feels it needs a lot of them to meet energy requirements.

On the face of it, run-of-the-river projects seem a benign threat to the environment. After all, they do not require huge dams and they don't result in large-scale flooding. Plus, the power is clean, green hydroelectricity. However, any time you build something in the wilderness, you inflict change on that wilderness. With run-of-the-river projects come all the extra things that don't necessarily translate well into upholding environmental values - access roads, generating stations, small dams and transmission lines.

Add to that aquatic footprint the potential for negatively affecting fish migratory patterns and wildlife habitats, and you have the perfect ingredients for a showdown pitting energy project proponents against environmental activists.

Complicating the situation is the fact that independent power producers will be building the projects, which need approval by the provincial government.

Some think B.C. Hydro should build the projects itself. But that view fails to realize the limited resources of the Crown corporation, which will be struggling to improve its own network of dams and transmission lines over the next few years.

Expecting it to build a whole bunch of new mini-hydro projects seems unrealistic