You featured a letter in the Aug. 3 Saanich News from a Raging Granny and give her space to present her rant that is just factually incorrect. She is entitled to be opposed to Site C, but at least in presenting her arguments she should be required to be honest with your readers. Opinions are one thing, facts are another.
The idea that the project will flood 31,000 hectares of prime farmland is pure nonsense. The proposed new reservoir in a relatively narrow and steep-sided valley bottom will only double the flooded area now covered by the river to a total of about 9,200 ha – and of the lands flooded only 3,800 ha are agricultural lands. Her letter also neglects to mention that a major feature and benefit of this “run of river project” is to utilize water already stored behind two upstream dams. Further, the Peace Valley is surrounded by 485,000 ha of arable farmland untouched by the project. So her diatribe is badly out of scale.
We can argue about merits of the project on basis of costs, electrical demand, alternative energy, etc. but critics badly overstate the environmental impacts as rationale to condemn this project.
James Anderson
Saanich
