Editor:
Who will benefit from building the third dam on the Peace River called Site C?
B.C. Hydro will receive a gift of a public resource in the form of agricultural land and a massive amount of fresh water.
The critics say that the agricultural land is minimal so it’s okay to flood it.
The critics say the hydro power is needed so let’s sacrifice more land from the ALR and limit the flow of fresh water.
The Williams Lake co-generation facility is not producing power currently as BC Hydro doesn’t need power from that facility, but it seems that the province needs a dam in the north.
What is obvious is that hydro power will be needed to develop the LNG vision of the provincial government.
What is less evident is that LNG development will require an unimaginable amount of water. It will be handy to have a huge reservoir of water to pump underground and be lost forever from the hydrology cycle.
Alberta knows about this process as it watches its scant supplies dwindle.
Make no mistake; the Site C project is more about using a public water resource than it is about hydro electric power.
Because the provincial government has held out the old myth of wealth and jobs, the population in the south of B.C. has acquiesced; the people in the north know better.
Never mind that the economics of exporting LNG are not promising.
What is the sum total of the loss of the Peace River Valley to all of British Columbians?
Agricultural land with microclimates rivalling the Fraser Valley will disappear; a massive fresh water resource of the remaining Peace River will become a commodity to be exploited by corporations; and sustainable culture for, not only the ranchers and farmers of the Peace, but for all British Columbians.
What do we gain?
The public will eventually be paying higher hydro rates to finance the dam along with government subsidies to help corporate entities build the dam.
The plan is to export LNG to some customers yet to be named, a further loss of a public resource.
The issue of Site C is not electric power but water.
Peter Smith
Williams Lake
