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[troutbreath]

“We’ll see what they have to say,” he said. “That’s the purpose of the meeting, I guess.” (Penner)

I guess or presume or don't care! Sounds like he's meeting with the ad hoc committee just to say he did.

Penner and fellow MLA John Les have both stated that their support of “environmentally responsible” gravel removal to protect residents from flood hazards is an election promise they aim to keep.


So they will keep taking gravel out up there till it floods downstream

[Nicole]

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/10/07/bc-gravel-probe-penner.html


B.C.'s Opposition New Democrats are calling for an investigation by the auditor general into whether prior to becoming environment minister, Barry Penner pressured a top government bureaucrat to muzzle two scientists speaking out about environmental concerns.

NDP environment critic Shane Simpson pointed to a five-year-old letter Penner wrote to former deputy environment minister Gord Macatee that, Simpson said, amounts to a call for the silencing of the scientists.

"It's a letter that attempts to intimidate the then-deputy [minister] and put pressure on the deputy to muzzle two of his officials who were raising concerns about gravel extraction from the Fraser [River] or the potential for gravel extraction," he said.

Penner, who wrote the letter prior to being named to the Liberal cabinet, said he contacted the deputy minister on behalf of his constituents, who were confused about the responses they were receiving from ministry bureaucrats about gravel removal from the river.

"I was representing the concerns expressed by local governments in my constituency and acting in my role as the member of the legislature to bring forward the concerns of those local governments," he said.

Penner said his letter requested clarification of the policy on gravel removal because staff working for the ministry were telling local governments the B.C. government did not support gravel extraction.

He said the Liberals campaigned on the "environmentally responsible removal of gravel."

"I did my job as an MLA to seek clarification as to what the understanding was of the ministry as to the government policy," Penner said.

He cited a March 2003 letter he received from Macatee in response. The letter said the Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection supported the core principle of a Fraser River management plan: "gravel removal would be allowed for the purpose of flood protection."

Letter was mere request for clarification of policy: Penner
Penner said his letter was not threatening and was not intended to silence the scientists.

"It means exactly what it says, which is if the staff were not aware of what the policy was, it would be good to inform [them] of what it is," he said.

Almost nine months after Penner wrote the letter to the deputy minister of environment, Dr. Marvin Rosenau, a senior government fisheries biologist , said he was reassigned and then seconded to the University of British Columbia. He no longer works for the B.C. government.

Rosenau said in a recent interview that he believes his constant criticism of gravel removal from the Fraser ultimately led to his removal. The other scientist involved was Ross Neuman, who is no longer a member of the Fraser Gravel Technical Committee but still works with the Environment Ministry.

Rosenau said he was also critical of a proposed housing development in the Mission area, but his scientific comments opposing gravel removal were the major irritant that led to his movement from government.

"One of them that clearly had a lot of controversy associated with it, was Fraser River gravel removal," Rosenau said. "They basically punted all the technical guys, at least within the Ministry of Environment fisheries section, off of the gravel committee, when I was reassigned."

Environmentalists and some scientists say gravel removal impacts fish habitat, but others say the gravel must be removed to control potential flood waters.

Simpson said a federal and provincial moratorium against gravel removal on the Fraser River was not lifted until 2004.

The New Democrats want the auditor general to investigate the reassigning of the two scientists, as well as the two projects they expressed concerns about.

© The Canadian Press, 2008

[chris gadsden]

By Robert Freeman - Chilliwack Progress

Published: October 09, 2008 6:00 PM

No clear path to resolving the conflict over gravel removal in the Fraser River was reached Tuesday between environmentalists and Environment Minister Barry Penner.

“I’m not unhappy with the meeting, but I thought there would be more of a meeting of the minds,” Terry Bodman, a member of an ad hoc committee of environmental groups, said after the 45-minute meeting in Vancouver.

“There was no meeting of the minds,” he said.

Penner said that, despite the committee’s assurance it does not oppose all gravel mining operations in the Fraser, member Marvin Rosenau “had a tough time coming up with one project where he didn’t have strong objections.”

The minister said he also found it “somewhat confusing” that the committee was proposing a Vedder River management model for the Fraser River when it is “not happy” with the existing model.

In an interview before the meeting, Rosenau said there are “lot of warts and bumps” in the Vedder River model, “but the decision-making is pretty open and transparent.”

Penner insisted there is public input into the Fraser River approvals, and that removing gravel does reduce flood risks.

“The studies we rely on conclude that over time removal does reduce flood risk,” he said.

But Rosenau, a former government biologist, disagreed.

“Based on the information we’ve got, all we’re seeing is that many, if not all, of these projects have no flood protection or erosion benefits and the province has failed to meet its obligation to the fish under its mandate.”

He said a ministry staff person was asked during the meeting about the benefits of the removal at Spring Bar, and Rosenau said the staff technician replied that it would not have been his “preferred” location for removal.

“With the minister sitting right there ... he was saying this isn’t a very good spot,” Rosenau said.

Former fisheries biologist Otto Langer, who was also at the meeting, said the “confrontational” relationship between the ministry and environmentalists has to stop.

“Nothing is being achieved by us scrapping with each other, “ he said. “The better way is to make the process transparent, so the committee and the public can see the science behind removals.”

Chris Gadsden, another committee member at the meeting, said without transparency, “How can you test what these people are saying? How can you believe what they are trying to say?”

Over $600,000 in taxpayers’ money was spent on removals at Big Bar and Spring Bar, yet there was no danger of flooding, according to a study by UBC professor Michael Church, he said.

Penner said several sites are now under consideration by Emergency Management BC for the next round of gravel removals.

rfreeman@theprogress.com

[chris gadsden]

Note the statement about how gravel excavation caused the massive fish kill. The government thinks it OK to do this, actually it seems they encourage it.




Salmon could soon vanish like the cod, says author

Published: October 13, 2008 6:00 PM
Updated: October 14, 2008 11:29 AM

The alarming decimation of the West Coast’s iconic Pacific salmon in the past 20 years has largely been a hidden tragedy.

It lurks beneath the waves, unlike more visible environmental catastrophes like shrinking polar ice or B.C.’s reddening stands of beetle-devoured pine trees.

This summer, just 1.7 million Fraser River sockeye returned – a tiny remnant of a resource that once generated 20 million fish a year. The commercial fishing industry is now worth just $60 million, down 70 per cent.

West Vancouver author Alex Rose, whose new book “Who Killed the Grand Banks?” examines the failed Newfoundland fishery, warns Pacific salmon could meet the same fate as the once-legendary cod.

“We’re at crisis,” Rose said in an interview. “I’m not a doomsayer. I’m not an apocalyptic thinker. But we have to rethink what we’re doing.”

Newfoundlanders pointed fingers of blame in all directions when the cod were in freefall.

And Rose, whose book also explores the plight of B.C. salmon, said it’s no different here on the West Coast.

“Every year, there’s another rationale or excuse for what’s happened,” he said.

Ocean survival, rising water temperatures and poaching are favourite scapegoats when salmon go missing.

But Rose said the primary cause is more obvious.

“We’re all overfishing – all of the user groups,” he said. “We’ve got to stop.”

He urges an immediate fishing moratorium by all users on Strait of Georgia wild coho and chinook – the two species he says are most threatened.

After overfishing, he lists habitat destruction as the next likeliest cause of the collapse.

While logging is one major factor, Rose also lists damage to urban streams from development, industrial pollution and volatile new cycles of flood and drought triggered by climate change.

A massive gravel mining operation near Chilliwack that destroyed 2.2 million pink salmon hatchlings in 2006 was the latest high-profile atrocity, he said.

Upriver, salmon face increased competition for water with ranchers, farmers and local cities.

Rose’s most stinging critique is reserved for federal fishery managers, who he accuses of presiding over botched science, muddled management and questionable priorities.

“They have a confused mandate, they are intellectually bankrupt and we can’t count on them any more,” Rose said.

Rather than decisively lead the way to a sustainable solution, he said, DFO managers are left to ineffectually referee the open warfare between commercial fishermen, sport anglers and aboriginal bands.

“One can only conclude that they have failed,” he said. “They are prepared to sacrifice, with the political decisions they’re making now, the very sustainability of these stocks.”

Federal fisheries deputy minister David Bevan told Rose west coast fisheries are shut down when necessary to preserve salmon, and that there’s much greater awareness now of the importance of ocean conditions on salmon survival rates.

Rose is not encouraged.

Despite advance forecasts this would be a low return year for sockeye, fisheries managers gave the green light to commercial and sport fishing for limited periods, and a constricted aboriginal food fishery.

Rose said the picture is even worse for coho and chinook.

“We’re witnessing terrible destruction of these stocks,” he said. “It’s a tragedy.”

Canada already deserves shame for its central role in demolishing a global treasure – the Grand Banks cod.

Rose said it is unthinkable for the country to duplicate that ecological disaster on this coast.

[chris gadsden]

Note coment made below by a online reader.


Chilliwack Progress
No ‘muzzling’ by Penner: Fraser Valley mayors

By Robert Freeman - Chilliwack Progress

Published: October 13, 2008 6:00 PM
Updated: October 14, 2008 11:28 AM BC Environment Minister Barry Penner was responding to Fraser Valley mayors’ call for flood protection when he wrote a letter in 2003 about two ministry employees allegedly blocking the government’s gravel removal policy in the Fraser River.

“We had concerns they were not following government policy,” former Kent Mayor Sylvia Pranger confirmed Friday.

Penner claimed he was acting on behalf of two Fraser Valley mayors when he wrote the letter, which the NDP charged was an attempt to “muzzle” ministry scientists.

Chilliwack Mayor Clint Hames said the mayors asked Penner to confirm it was the policy of the water, land, and air protection ministry to remove gravel from the Fraser for flood protection because none was happening.

“We asked Mr. Penner, (MLA John) Les, (MLA John) van Dongen and (MLA Randy) Hawes for help on several occasions,” Hames said. “We believed that we had met every hurdle and still no approvals were forthcoming.”

In the letter, written before he became the environment minister, Penner said if the policy was confirmed, it would be “worthwhile” for the deputy minister “to remind your ministry’s employees of this policy.”

The NDP is asking Auditor General John Doyle to review the conduct of Penner, Hawes, Les and Premier Gordon Campbell for alleged “interference” in the discipline and removal of Dr. Marvin Rosenau and other ministry staff.

Pranger said she doesn’t see any attempt at “muzzling’ in Penner’s letter, as charged by the NDP.

“There wasn’t any ‘muzzling’ there,” she said. “He’s asking the ministry for clarification on their policy.”

But NDP environment critic Shane Simpson said there’s a difference between acting on behalf of constituents and “writing a letter to the deputy minister and saying, ‘your staff are raising issues and concerns that are not consistent with the government, so shut them up.’”

Penner said in an earlier interview that he was not aware of any disciplinary action taken against the two employees.

Rosenau, who resigned from the ministry in 2004, could not be reached for comment by press time Friday. But earlier in the week he told reporters that he had been pushed out of the ministry because some MLAs were unhappy with his reports as a fisheries biologist.

Simpson said the Penner letter was the “third layer of what seemed like too much of a familiar thread” uncovered by the NDP that suggested possible political interference in environmental assessments.

“Government scientists ... work for the public interest,” Simpson said. “They’re not supposed to be there to work for one side or the other.”

“As minister, (Penner’s) first job is to ensure the integrity of the process,” he added, “to ensure the independence of the science.”

Both sides claim they have studies that back up their position on gravel removal.

Rosenau and other members of an ad hoc committee of environmental groups seeking a more “transparent” approval process met with Penner last week, but apparently with little success.

Hames said at the time the letter was written, Fraser Valley mayors felt Rosenau and other ministry employees had “clearly lost objectivity” and the “line between advocate and scientist had become very blurry.”

That belief was backed up when a provincial court judge, hearing a 2004 case in which habitat damage was alleged during a gravel removal operation, described Rosenau and other Crown witnesses as exhibiting “signs of being advocates rather than dispassionate, disinterested experts and this adversely affected the weight that I was able to attach to their respective evidence.”

The judge dismissed the charge.

Simpson chided the mayor for using the judge’s four-year-old comments to cast doubt on Rosenau’s credibility now as a scientist.

“That’s an unfortunate position for an elected politician to take,” he said.

rfreeman@theprogress.com


1 Comment
Now we know why Barry Penner ended up in the Minister of Environment chair - he had the right stuff for the BC Liberal's. Way to sell out, Barry!

I like the way the Progress had to post a new story, their buddies told them the last one didn't dump on Marvin Rosenau quite enough. But thanks for bringing up the 2004 fish - that was followed by the huge 2006 kill. 1.5 million to 2.5 million fish caused by gravel mining that Barry's Ministry did nothing about. Well he showed he was willing to sell out.

All fishermen - vote this man OUT OF OFFICE now. We don't need someone like him looking after our sockeye and our sturgeon, if we want to still be fishing three years from now.

[chris gadsden]

Chilliwack Progress
Rosenau defends ‘advocacy’ role of ministry

By Robert Freeman - Chilliwack Progress

Published: October 16, 2008 6:00 PM
Updated: October 16, 2008 6:30 PM His scientific objectivity called into question, Dr. Marvin Rosenau refused to back down from his “advocacy” of the environment over gravel removal operations in the Fraser River when he was a government fisheries biologist.

“Would the provincial government not want ministry staff to be advocates for the environment?” he asked, after his objectivity was questioned by two Fraser Valley mayors commenting on his actions as a government fisheries biologist before he resigned in 2004.

Chilliwack Mayor Clint Hames and Kent Mayor Sylvia Pranger both raised a provincial court judge’s comment on Rosenau’s testimony in a 2004 gravel removal case to back up their belief that two ministry employees were blocking the new B.C. Liberal government’s policy of removing gravel in the Fraser River for flood protection.

Their concern about the employees led to a 2003 letter written by Chilliwack-Kent MLA Barry Penner, which the NDP now charges was an attempt to “muzzle” ministry scientists. Penner denies the charge, saying he was only acting as the area MLA on behalf of the mayors.

In the judge’s written reasons, Rosenau and other Crown witnesses are described as showing “signs of being advocates rather than dispassionate, disinterested experts,” which played a part in the dismissal of the charge against the Cheam Indian Band.

Now an instructor at BCIT, Rosenau told The Progress last week he doesn’t know if he was one of the employees referred to in the letter.

Several ministry staff were working on the file, he said, but “I was probably asking the harshest questions” about the proposed removals and whether they had flood protection benefits, and what mitigation and compensation for habitat damage was in place, as required by the law.

“These hardcore questions were not being answered,” he said. “Did my actions block gravel removals? If the science blocks it, then so be it.”

He said several academics also agreed with his position, and a later study commissioned by the federal government in 2007 showed that “large-scale” gravel removals did not appear to “effectively” lower the risking of flooding.

But Mayor Pranger said last week that there is a “mountain” of other studies that show gravel removal is not harmful to fish habitat, and in fact can be beneficial.

Rosenau and others in an ad hoc committee of environmental groups are asking Penner, now the B.C. environment minister, to open up the approval process for public review.

rfreeman@theprogress.com

[chris gadsden]

Received this today.


INFORMATION BULLETIN
For Immediate Release
2009PSSG0005-000044
Jan. 14, 2009

Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General

SEDIMENT AND GRAVEL REMOVAL WILL REDUCE FLOOD RISK

VICTORIA - As part of the Province's ongoing efforts to protect public
safety by reducing the risk of flooding in the Fraser Valley,
contractors will remove sediment and gravel on the Fraser River.

Between Jan. 15 and March 15, 2009, crews with contractor Lehigh
Aggregates will extract about 155,000 cubic metres of sediment and
gravel from Harrison Bar near Chilliwack. To minimize environmental
impact, a temporary bridge will be put in place to allow crews and
equipment to access the bar.

All work on this project must meet strict environmental guidelines to
ensure fish habitat is protected. The federal Department of Fisheries
and Oceans has approved the project, and the Province is working to
ensure that sediment and gravel extraction is done based on a sound
scientific approach - one that protects this sensitive environment
while balancing the need to protect public safety.

The Province is spending approximately $263,000 for the temporary
bridge and biological and hydraulic studies at the site before, during
and after sediment and gravel removal. An independent environmental
monitor will be onsite throughout the project to ensure environmental
protection measures are in place. The independent monitor will have the
authority to stop work if any environmental concerns arise.



Media contact:

Glen Plummer
Communications Manager
Emergency Management B.C.
250 953-4062
250 213-5667 (cell)

[bentrod]

Without any hangups, it would take at least a year in Washington for any environmental permits for this type of work to be obtained.  How stupid do these people think we are?  I'm seriously getting to the point where I am giving up on BC and planning my future trips to Alaska.  This kind of rape and pillage of the environment has and will have severe impacts to the beautiful Canadian environment.   I am praying that someone drops a billion dollar law suit on the BC government and seeks an emergency injunction to stop this nonsense.  IMO, that's the only way to wake those arrogant @$$#0!3s up. 

[bentrod]

BTW, any bets that they'll drive pile for the bridge work, not have any hydroaccoustical monitoring requirements, not use vegetable oil for hydraulic fluid, not re-fuel vehicles/machinery at least .25 miles from the riparian, not have diapers on all heavy equipment to keep petroleum out of sensitive areas, not have silt fence in place, not have fish screens on pumps, not isolate work areas for all fish, not monitor downstream water quality, not re-vegetate the riparian area, etc., etc.

[BwiBwi]

On top of that, they have to do it on a odd year when pinks are running.   

[work2fish]

BTW, any bets that they'll drive pile for the bridge work, not have any hydroaccoustical monitoring requirements, not use vegetable oil for hydraulic fluid, not re-fuel vehicles/machinery at least .25 miles from the riparian, not have diapers on all heavy equipment to keep petroleum out of sensitive areas, not have silt fence in place, not have fish screens on pumps, not isolate work areas for all fish, not monitor downstream water quality, not re-vegetate the riparian area, etc., etc.

Anyone know who the independant monitor is?  Might be worth posting, that way if anyone happens to be out there and sees anything they think shouldn't be going on, take a few pictures and forward to the monitor of the program, with a cc to the local papers and the MoE.  About the only way this would ever get stopped is if someone can prove, or at least get the media to hint, that they are doing something wrong, especially with an election around the corner provincially (and possibly federally if they mess up on the 27th).

[chris gadsden]

CBC radio news item.


Fraser River gravel extraction to reduce flood threat: official
Last Updated: Thursday, January 15, 2009 | 9:17 AM PT Comments0Recommend3CBC News
A long-term plan to reduce flooding in the Fraser Valley east of Vancouver is expected to begin Thursday with the excavation of a huge gravel bar in the Fraser River.

A crew of 25 will truck away the equivalent of more than 50 Olympic-sized swimming pools of gravel and sediment over the next two months from the site near Chilliwack.

The 10-year, $100-million plan involves building and maintaining existing dikes, and preventing the erosion of riverbanks across B.C., according to Glen Thompson, a flood program specialist with the emergency-planning department of the Ministry of Public Safety.

But starting the gravel extraction sooner would not have had any effect on the recent flooding in Chilliwack because the water in that case came from a different area, Thompson said.

About 75 Fraser Valley homes were flooded when recent heavy rains melted a large amount of accumulated snow, flooding local waterways and spilling over into low lying communities near the Fraser River.

It is still unclear what effect removing the gravel will have on water levels, because gravel and sediment naturally wash up and collect in the area known as Harrison Bar, Thompson said.

Historically, the debris would disperse naturally, but urban development and the construction of dikes on the Fraser, which have narrowed the river at many points, have stopped that process.

Gravel extraction on the Fraser has been controversial because of concerns from fisheries experts about the impact it might have on salmon that use the gravel beds for spawning.

The extracted gravel will be used for construction, Thompson said.

[Geff_t]

What I would like to know is what effect this all has on the sturgeon population up there. Do they also know where sturgeon spawn.

[chris gadsden]

What I would like to know is what effect this all has on the sturgeon population up there. Do they also know where sturgeon spawn.

From what I have been told by our technical people some of the gravel excavations sites have impacted sturgeon spawning areas.

[troutbreath]

"It is still unclear what effect removing the gravel will have on water levels, because gravel and sediment naturally wash up and collect in the area known as Harrison Bar, Thompson said."


But they still spend $263,000 on subsidizing gravel. For construction of probably the "Olympic Village". No money for fish habitat, the opposite in fact.