Conti.
Money for industry
Water is money to this fast-growing industry. The volume of water that power plants are required to leave in streams on a continuing basis as well as the rate of short-term ramping affect their ability to produce electricity. The more water they have to leave in the river, the less they have for power production.
Companies "argue economic hardship" when it comes to diverting water because of fish, the federal department of fisheries and oceans (DFO) states in minutes of a July 21, 2011, inter-agency meeting on a pro-posed run-of-river project on the Kokish River on northeast-ern Vancouver Island.
Government officials face a "significant challenge" to reduce water available for power generation "because proponents are reluctant to reduce revenues," the minutes stated.
The Kokish example is "not different from other operating projects that have not been accurately managed," the documents went on to state.
DFO has observed "consider-able non-compliance," and the success rate of complying with in-stream flow requirements "is not very good."
Adam Lewis, president of Ecofish Research Ltd., a leading consultant to industry and government on run-of-river projects, said all run-of-river power projects have some negative effect on the environment.
Fish living upstream can get sucked into the intake pipes and killed in the turbines, said Lewis, who is also a former director of the Steelhead Society of B.C.
But the larger issue, he suggested, is the potential for power plants to ramp down water levels too quickly and leave young fish stranded and dead for kilometres downstream.
Emerging salmon eggs are especially sensitive in March and April; steelhead and trout in July and August.
Frustrated officials
The freedom-of-information documents reveal the frustration of provincial and federal bureaucrats with continuing problems at the Ashlu and lower Mamquam plants.
The Capital Power plant, built in 1996 with no requirement for monitoring, continued to be plagued by fish issues well after fisheries biologists first discovered the dead steelhead on Aug. 28, 2010. Capital Power sold the 50-megawatt facility to Atlantic Power, a Boston-based publicly traded company, in November 2011. Cap-ital Power and Atlantic Power refused interview requests from The Sun.
In a letter to Capital Power dated Sept. 9, 2011, federal habitat biologist Francesca Knight and hydrotechnical engineer Vince Busto expressed concern over at least 19 known incidents over the previous 12-month period.
They warned that the death of newly emerged salmo-nid fry are of "great concern" and demanded that the company operate in a manner that does not destroy fish or their habitat.
The federal fisheries department refused to allow anyone to be interviewed by The Sun.
However, in a written statement, the department said it has "issued warning letters to Capital Power advising the company to increase the discharge of water into the river from the hydro project to protect fish and fish habitat. As a result of this work, the company has upgraded its turbines and the computer systems and equipment that regulate water flow from the facility into the Mamquam River."
More concerns
The freedom-of-information documents show similar concerns about the Ashlu Creek plant, built by Ledcor Power Inc. and now owned by Quebec-based Innergex.
Officials expressed concerns over insufficient water flows over a fish ladder designed for rainbow trout and ramping events stranding young fish.
In an April 26, 2010 email, provincial fisheries biologist Erin Stoddard stated: "In my opinion the strandings to date would have resulted in fish kills, and would have impacted the population."
He called it a "significant issue that should have and could have been resolved a long time ago by Innergex, especially as they were ordered to address it by DFO."
Stoddard's concerns proved prophetic. A "technical problem" at the Innergex plant on Ashlu Creek on May 8, 2010, left an estimated area of 6,086 square metres high and dry downstream for a distance of 1.7 kilometres. Officials counted 166 fry, including 62 chinook, 71 coho, four pink salmon, 18 dolly varden/bull trout (both provincially blue-listed species of special concern) and 11 unidentified salmonids.
Days later, on May 13, 2010, Stoddard wrote that "there is not enough flow going through the ladder for an adult-sized rainbow to migrate upstream."
Mike Nelson of Cascade Environmental Resource Group Ltd. warned on June 1, 2010, against "trying to fix a significant problem by trying to do little changes."
And on April 26, 2011, Scott Barrett, a provincial section head of ecosystems, complained, "we are spending a large amount of people resources ... on holding the hand of this industry" to bring them into compliance.
The federal fisheries department refused to comment on Ashlu Creek, but confirmed it is investigating one run-of-river operation to determine whether charges should be laid.
Innergex conceded it encountered problems after its 50-megawatt Ashlu plant started operations in November 2009, but insisted it is improving operations to ensure compliance.
Matt Kennedy, the company's vice-president of environment, described the event involving the 166 fish as an "unfortunate incident" that occurred in the early stages of the commissioning of the plant.
"We essentially operate the plant differently," he insisted. "We don't feel it's acceptable for our company to have those sorts of things going on. So we've changed our policies and procedures."
Richard Blanchet, the company's senior vice-president, noted that almost five per cent of the $130-million cost of the Ashlu Creek project is related to meeting ramping requirements.
Monitoring program
Innergex is now conducting a formal five-year monitoring program to determine the effects on fish and to guide modifications as required. "Innergex is fully committed and responsive to address these issues and is trying its best to avoid any incident," Blanchet said.
Innergex has developed 60,000 square metres of spawning channels below the dam as compensation for construction of the plant.
The company estimates the channels produce 100,000 fry per year, although it's unknown how many of those fish are additional to the system or might have spawned elsewhere in the absence of the channels. "We're very pleased with that, it's a very important part of our project," Kennedy said.
Environmental impact
Despite the events revealed in the documents, the run-of-river power industry says its projects have fewer environ-mental impacts on fish than traditional BC Hydro dams. They also do not emit the greenhouse gases such as car-bon dioxide associated with power production from burning fossil fuels.
Clean Energy B.C. (an industry group formerly called the Independent Power Association of B.C.) boasts in a two-page, run-of-river fact sheet that the industry is sustainable "green electricity" and that its projects are developed responsibly with "minimal impact" on vegetation, bird or wildlife habitat.
The word "fish" is mentioned only once.
Clean Energy B.C. executive director Paul Kariya confirmed it is "probably for sure that every hydro project ever developed in B.C. has killed fish," be it private or public. "Sadly all developments like this have impacts," he said.
"Isn't the bigger question, how are we going to power our province in the future? We need electricity and this demand will grow in excess of what we can do through conservation."
Does that make run-of-river projects green?
"The green label is very subjective," responded Julia Berardinucci, the south coast's director of resource management for the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations.
"I would want to refrain from saying yes or no, one way or the other."
Berardinucci said run-of-river projects represent an "emerging technology" operating in a "challenging landscape."
The government's regulation of such projects and industry's response are both improving, she argued.
"We're seeing some incidents occurring, but relative to the number of [power] plant operations, it's obviously a point of opinion as to whether it's having obvious impacts," she said from her Surrey office.
"The potential risk is always there for all the plants...."
Improved design
Improved plant design standards and monitoring of operations along with continuing "learn-as-we-go" revisions to ramping guidelines are all improving the situation, she said.
The federal fisheries department said in its statement it is developing monitoring procedures to improve the assessment of impacts from run-of-river projects.
In collaboration with industry and the B.C. government, the department is also developing a ramping guide to reduce impacts to fish and fish habitat.
Environmentalists are not satisfied and say it is time to put the brakes on an industry shown not to be environmentally benign.
The Wilderness Committee is calling for a moratorium on further approvals of such projects and federal charges where fish and fish habitat have suffered.
"You have poor planning and low environmental standards," said Barlee, whose group has been a leading critic of run-of-river projects over the years. "These projects shouldn't be situated in fish habitat at all."
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Topic: Run-Of-River Projects Tied To Fish Kills (Read 5168 times)