Protest expected at Glacier-Howser open house
June 25, 2009 by Bram Rossman
Filed under BC government, Business, Columbia Valley, Energy, Environment, Freedom, Invermere, Local news, Video
This photo of Edourad Pass was submitted to the Environmental Assessment Office as supporting documentation for concerns about the power transmission line that is planned to span the Purcell Mountains. (Photo courtesy Nancy Judd)
As Columbia Valley residents begin to amass in opposition to another significant development proposed in the Purcell Mountains, one would be forgiven for feeling a sense of deja vu.
While a proposed run of the river hydroelectric project has nothing, directly, to do with a controversial resort development proposed in the Jumbo Valley, many of the same concerns are being voiced.
Melting glaciers, wilderness degradation, wildlife disruption and the selling-off of public land for private profit. Such are just a few of the concerns that have been submitted to the Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) regarding a plan by Axor Group Inc. (under the banner of Purcell Green Power Inc.) to build independent power projects on Glacier and Howser Creeks. The facilities will be located on the east side of the Duncan reservoir on the West Kootenay side of the Purcells, approximately 15 km north of Meadow Creek.
Their proposal, which includes constructing a transmission line that will span the ancient mountain range and connect to BC Hydro infrastructure 6 km west of Invermere, is expected to draw fire during an open house in Invermere this evening. The meeting is part of a project review period prior to an environmental assessment certificate being issued to the project proponents.
A similar meeting, which was held in Kaslo on Tuesday, was packed with area residents who filled every chair, lined the walls and sat on the floor, according to local news reports.
According to the Nelson Star newspaper, Nelson-Creston MLA Michelle Mungall advised the EAO panel that the public display of concern comes from peoples’ passion for the places they live.
“Walking in here we were worried that we were going to be dismissed as a bunch of hippies, a bunch of people who are just angry,” she said. “But what you’re seeing here tonight is incredible passion and fervor for the land we live on.”
Numerous groups, including Jumbo Wild Forever, the West Kootenay Eco Society and Rivers at Risk, have been encouraging supporters to rally at the public meetings to display their alarm.
The meeting is scheduled between 5:30 and 9 p.m. however the EAO and Purcell Green Power will make presentations at 7 p.m. A rally outside the Invermere Community Hall is expected to get underway at 6 p.m.
Copyright © 2009 columbiavalleynews.com
There was CBC coverage of the Kaslo meeting. I got this in an email from someone who attended -
“Well! That was some meeting in Kaslo, 1,117 people as Axor counted. The
energy in the air was electric… At meadow Ceek it was around 130, more sedate but very good questions.”
If you’re prepared to listen we can work very cooperatively, but we won’t be going away.
Phase 1 Environmental Site Assessment
Paper, paper, paper! Rules, regulations, technicalities. Developers are as bad as bankers and lawyers. But what really matters is what’s in people’s hearts and what it’s like for everyone to live on this planet. We need to get our priorities straight. The ‘benefits’ to a minority are NOT more important than what’s valued and wanted by the majority — even if they think they are more intelligent than the masses and know what’s really best (ignoring the innate intelligence of all living creatures, including their fellow humans).
Ya, ya, I can hear you saying that more electricity benefits everyone — but it does not benefit them in the big picture because it impacts quality of life. Huge quantities of electricity to waste as you please are not an essential of life. Better perhaps to let the electricity supply run low, then maybe people will just do the obvious … use less. Because we can always use less, there is no big crisis in not producing more.
To those who are against this project I would say one thing. If you don’t want this thing in your back yard, then don’t push it into anyone else’s back yard. If you don’t allow the electricity to be produced here then you have a responsibility to make sure that your own personal consumption is not part of the problem. If your actions don’t match your rhetoric — i.e. if you don’t tame your own consumption — then you will be hard to take seriously. Like logging protesters who still expect to buy paper and lumber… the contradiction of words and actions is not credible.
To look at it another way, if Glacier-Howser would be developed only for people elsewhere to use, then you have a good complaint. But if you, the complainers, are also the consumers of electricity who are causing such a project to be needed, then my ears will become deaf to your words — even though I am personally against this project.
Ask Axor to come up with a cost estimate to underground some or all of the power lines. In my limited research on this subject it is possible to carry large voltages in wires with Pex (cross linked sheathing)encasement of the power lines. . Has a cost estimate been run by an independent estimating group to determine the cost comparison between undergrounding the power lines to a conventional tower supported system. Perhaps the visual impact could be reduced substantially. The article I read said that the undergrounding cost substantially more but I am not sure why this is. There are some advantages to undergrounding such as eliminating the electromotive field, hazard to helicopters and airplanes. There would some manholes which would be placed periodically along the lines so that any damaged power cables could be pulled and replaced. There would also need to be a gravel road to access the manholes and maintain the lines. The road would need to be built to the standards required for an all wheel drive truck that could carry large reels of power cable. A tower supported system would also need the same type of road as the underground system to maintain it. I believe the right of way required for the underground system would be much more narrow than the one wide ones we normally see for the one which has the galavanized steel towers. On the balance even if it is more expensive I believe the impact on the environment of the Purcells would be less. While my solution may or may not be practical I am making an attempt to work with the people proposing to do something and lessen the impact. I suggest that you people do the same instead of being Not in my backyard types. If you want a much lower standard of living go ahead and stop the project.
Larry, I guess your noticing the use of extreme exaggeration being on the rise has worn off on you. Stating that stopping the Glacier-Howser project will result in a much lower standard of living is kinda over the top, don’t you think?
The problem with having any power line through any forested area Larry is that it allows access to four wheel drive vehicles, 4X4’s with it’s incumbant hunters and mud boggers into previously unlogged areas.
Part of the barrier to this particular valley system is that there is a major creek crossing which is currently unbridged if that is a word. As a consequence, the lazy hunter cannot access this particular area and do their subsequent shoot em up on the animals.
Also, without roads, there is no specified animal corridor manufactured that might or might not change animal movement from one drainage to another.
As to underground vs tower to tower, the concept apparently is to use the helicoters to drop the towers and string the lines without touching the vegetation and the resultant roads. Thereby leaving large a and long swaths between towers without any road system at all. With underground you are looking at 100% road access. Then you go back to the above.
It would be a truely innovative manner for restricting access to the boggers, 4X4’s and ATV hunters.
I have to believe that what Larry is talking to Ken Cox when discussing the potential for something like Glacier Howse is the rolling power outage from a few days ago. Also, last nights resultant loss of power due to repairs for the system. This is caused by, among other things, over load of the system by not having 1. enough power to supply our needs and 2. not enough power lines to deliver the electricity to the people of our valley – Cranbrook to Golden.
Our valley was out of power for what? – 8 or 9 hours and then another hour plus last night.
That is a reduction in living standards immediate and local, caused by overtaxed overused power structures here in the province.
Solutions? conservation which we know people are not willing to do, more power generation, more power lines, shutting off street lights, scheduled power shutdowns every evening or alternative evenings.
These are things that South American countries are resorting to as we discuss this, to try and supply their low standard of living.
A lower standard of living without new power generation? It is happening right now.
David, are you implying that the East Kootenays are becoming more like a third world country simply because of rolling power outages? You should step outside and have a look around and tell us what you see. Does it even remotely resemble a third world country? So, you were out of power for a few hours, big deal. Seems more like an inconvenience than a slipping standard of living. Gee, maybe it’s even a blessing in disguise as folks had to find something else to do besides watching their big screen tvs or hacking away at their computers. Maybe a bit of forced conservation isn’t such a bad idea. Also I know several people who have very high standards of living and aren’t even connected to the power grid. Go figure!
There is a lot of passion in this situation with both sides of the situation adamant about their arguments. I just had this link sent to me and I think it will perhaps give a better picture. Our ideas of just what happened in meetings where we were not present has resulted in hot tempers flaring and we need to see for ourselves who was doing what. This video gives a pretty good illustration.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiMlYm3dRd8