A proposed $200-million hydroelectric project on the Peace River in northwest Alberta is still viable despite being turned down by provincial regulators, says a Calgary-based renewable energy developer.
And the Town of Peace River, which opposed the “run-of-river” project because of fears it would increase flooding risks to the town, also says it would be willing to consider a different location on the river for the development.
A joint panel of Alberta’s Energy and Utilities Board and the Natural Resources Conservation Board last week denied an application by Glacier Power Ltd. to build the 80-megawatt hydro- electric project.
Glacier Power, a subsidiary of Canadian Hydro Developers Inc., applied nearly two years ago to build a six-metre-high weir – enclosing 40 two-megawatt turbines – across the Peace River just upstream of the Highway 2 bridge at Dunvegan.
The joint regulatory panel found that the project’s overall economic and social benefits would be positive, including generating local construction jobs and industrial tax revenue.
But the panel also cited potential flooding risks to the Town of Peace River, possible elimination of a winter ice bridge used by local residents, safety concerns for boaters on the river and motorists on the Dunvegan Bridge, and uncertainty about the impact on fish in the Peace River.
In turning down the application, the panel concluded that the cumulative effect of the potential negative economic, social and environmental impacts “clearly outweighs the social and economic benefits to the local community, as well as to Albertans.”
But Glacier Power, which has spent about $4.3 million on the project as of the end of 2002, isn’t ready to give up yet, said Kent Brown, chief financial officer for Canadian Hydro. “The question is, can we compile and bring forward more evidence to convince the panel?”
The company is looking at three options, including reapplying, seeking a judicial review of the regulatory boards’ decision, or abandoning the project, Brown said. “We will choose the one that makes the most sense for the company and our shareholders.”
The project had and still has the support of the Municipal District of Fairview, which expects to receive about $1 million a year in additional tax revenue if the development goes ahead.
That would boost the district’s tax base by about one-third, said Fairview MD reeve Walter Doll, who noted: “We are one of the poorer municipalities in the province.”
Doll said there was no scientific evidence presented at last October’s public hearing on the application to back up the Town of Peace River’s concerns about increased flooding risks.
Glacier Power did scientific modelling of the expected ice formation and flooding potential on the Peace River from the hydro project, using two different models. One model concluded that the project wouldn’t change the flooding risk to the town, while the other projection said the risk would be somewhat reduced.
But Kelly Bunn, chief administrative officer for the Town of Peace River, says not only did the two models produce entirely different scenarios, ice formation experts at the hearing also disagreed about the flooding risks.
“We’re not opposed to the project,” Bunn said. “But we have to be comfortable or be assured that it isn’t going to increase our (flooding) risks in order for the project to go ahead.”
After a severe flood in 1997, some businesses in the town received about $8 million in an out-of-court settlement with the Town of Peace River and Alberta Environment.
Bunn said there was testimony at the hearing that flooding risks to the town could be reduced if Glacier Power relocated the hydro weir farther upstream or downstream. As proposed, “it just seemed to be located in an area that, from the town’s perspective, was one of the worst locations for it.”
Even if Glacier Power offers to relocate the weir, some environmental groups say they’ll continue to oppose the project.
“We are opposed to in-stream structures on navigable waters and waterways which are of high environmental significance . . .,” said Cliff Wallis, president of the Alberta Wilderness Association.
Glacier Power’s project, which would back up water at least 22 kilometres upstream and inundate up to 150 hectares of land, “is not the small-power kind of project that I think they should become known for,” Wallis said.
Helene Walsh, of Friends of the Peace, said she didn’t think the project could be relocated or redesigned in a way that would be acceptable to the environmental group.
“We felt that having a lake in the river valley would cause significant slumping” of the steep hills that form much of the valley, Walsh said.
The Dunvegan project would have been the largest development to date for Canadian Hydro, whose renewable energy portfolio includes wind turbines near Pincher Creek in southern Alberta.
But Brown noted that the company still has three projects scheduled to start construction this year, including a $40-million, 25-megawatt biomass plant in Grande Prairie that will burn wood waste from local Canfor lumber mills to generate heat and electricity.
The Dunvegan project “is certainly unique,” Brown said. “But we have a history of building and operating successful projects and we’ll continue to do that.”
