B.C. urged to block planned run-of-river project

Photo, Courtesy Craig Pettitt

B.C. urged to block planned run-of-river project in globally significant inland rainforest

Alberta’s TransAlta considers run-of-river installation on the upper Incomappleux River

By Larry Pynn, Vancouver Sun/Calgary Herald November 13, 2012

An Alberta company is proposing to build a run-of-river power facility in a globally significant interior temperate rainforest near Revelstoke renowned for its grizzly bears, ancient trees and rich biodiversity including rare lichens and at-risk bull trout.

Environmentalists fought logging plans in the upper Incomappleux River several years ago and are now asking the B.C. government to stop TransAlta’s hydro proposal in its tracks and declare the area a park to complement adjoining Glacier National Park to the north.

“The very proposal … in this area suggests that either TransAlta is a corporation with no environmental conscience that cares for nothing but its profits, or else it hasn’t seen the area,” charged Craig Pettitt, a director of the Valhalla Wilderness Society.

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Via: Moldy Chum

Hydro project approval threatens steelhead and salmon habitat

The habitat for the steelhead rainbow trout, is under threat due to plans
by a private power project to divert the Kokish River into a pipe.

Photograph by: McClatchy Newspapers, Vancouver Sun

Hydro project approval threatens steelhead and salmon habitat

By Poul Bech,

Vancouver Sun

December 17, 2011

For the first time, the B.C. government has approved a run-of river power project that diverts water from salmon or steelhead habitat. It means that no wild river in B.C. is safe from diversion and industrialization, regardless of its value to fish and wildlife.

The Kokish River is a small, wild stream on northern Vancouver Island. It cascades from Ida Lake through a steep white-water canyon to the ocean at Beaver Cove near Port McNeill.

This 10-kilometre long stream is home to a rare population of wild summer-run steelhead - seagoing rainbow trout that migrate to the ocean at a young age and return to their river as salmon-sized adults one to three years later.

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For more information about 'Run of the River Power' in British Columbia, go to:

Run-Of-River Power: Another Reckless BC Gold Rush and Run of River - Hydroelectric Projects in BC Create New Gold Rush