An environmental group is calling for B.C. to measure the cumulative impacts of run-of-river projects just as one established hydroelectricity producer moves forward with plans to add four new run-of-river facilities to its existing portfolio of six.
From the air and on the ground, Cloudworks Energy Inc.’s run-of-river facilities in the Harrison Lake region north of Chilliwack appear to have minimal impact on their surrounding areas.
Where the Vancouver company has damaged fish habitat, it has built fish spawning grounds that are, as is required by law, three times the size of the area damaged.
Cloudworks has restored some native plant species to the area and its relationship with local First Nations is exemplary, despite the back-and-forth negotiations about revenue sharing for the projects.
Darryl Peters, former chief of the Douglas First Nation who now acts a business liaison for the band, acknowledges that the band and Cloudworks have had their spats, but have ultimately developed into solid business partners.
“There can be easy negotiations and there can be difficult negotiations,” said Peters. “We had a bit of both. It’s a relationship that has been built, and you can’t be friends or enemies when you’re involved in this kind of venture.”
He noted that Cloudworks’ projects have brought jobs and training to the band – which has suffered in recent years as the forestry industry waned – and helped ignite the band’s entrepreneurial flame.
“We’re so used to being told that we’re not allowed to do certain things because of rules under Indian and Northern Affairs Canada,” said Peters, “Now with us having this business relationship with Cloudworks, we’re thinking outside the box – it helps us look at other opportunities.”
On November 12, the 300-member Douglas band was scheduled to hold an electrification ceremony with BC Hydro and Cloudworks celebrating a new transmission line that is finally connecting the band to the grid and getting it off diesel power.
Peters said the transmission line would not have been possible without Cloudworks, which invested $4.5 million into substation that BC Hydro is building for the band.
With Cloudworks looking to build four new run-of-river projects, the Douglas band can look forward to additional economic benefits of its partnership with Cloudworks.
But if you were to stack up all of Cloudworks’ facilities with all of the other run-of-river facilities in B.C., would the environmental, economic and social impact be less, equal or more to the impact of, say, a larger hydroelectric dam?
It’s a question that the Wilderness Committee wants the province to explore.
“Right now we have almost 800 creeks and rivers that are staked by private power companies across B.C.,” said Gwen Barlee, the Wilderness Committee’s policy director.
“The government looks at each project as a one-off. They don’t assess the cumulative impacts of the roads, transmission lines, logging and blasting.”
The Wilderness Committee is taking aim at Cloudworks for a couple of reasons. First, the company is expanding. Its four new projects, which it has electricity purchase agreements with BC Hydro, would add 60 megawatts of energy to its 80-megawatt portfolio.
Second, the Wilderness Committee views Cloudworks’ projects as major detriments to the surrounding environment.
Barlee said the committee, through a freedom of information request, obtained a 2,000-page report about Cloudworks’ environmental transgressions, which ranged from problems with rock slides to destruction of fish habitat to constructing bridges without adequate permits. In addition to calling for assessments of the cumulative impacts of run of river, the Wilderness Committee wants such projects placed in public hands. Its major concern is how BC Hydro will pay its $30 billion tab with independent power producers.
That sum, says the Wilderness Committee, is the result of the provincial government forcing Hydro to negotiate contracts at unsustainable rates with independent power producers.
Graham Horn, executive vice-president of Cloudworks, acknowledges that more work needs to be done to understand the cumulative impact of run of river.
“It’s question being wrestled with,” said Horn, noting that government agencies have asked Cloudworks to assess how all of its projects put together affect the surrounding lands.
“I don’t think there will be an environmental or biological impact, but there may be a socio-economic impact of too many – or a visual impact,” said Horn.
Horn noted that any form of development has an impact, but he defends run of river, whose footprint, he said, is about as small if not smaller than any other renewable energy’s footprint.
Given the government agencies, First Nations and community and environmental groups pulling the company in different directions, there’s one thing about which Horn is certain: “This is a fairly tough business.”
(See Native power surge, page 1.)