Utilities Commission Sends 70 ?s To BC Hydro: When, Exactly, Did You Know Dam Site C Was A Problem?

[hatrack]

The watchdog B.C. Utilities Commission has sent BC Hydro 70 questions about the troubled Site C dam, asking when geotechnical risks were first identified and when the project’s assurance board was first made aware of potential issues related to the dam’s stability. “I think they’ve come to the conclusion — but they don’t say it — that there’s been a cover-up by BC Hydro and by the government of British Columbia,” former BC Hydro CEO Marc Eliesen told The Narwhal.

On Oct. 21, The Narwhal reported that two top B.C. civil servants, including the senior bureaucrat who prepares Site C dam documents for cabinet, knew in May 2019 that the project faced serious geotechnical problems due to its “weak foundation” and the stability of the dam was “a significant risk.” “They [the civil servants] would have reported to their ministers and to the government in general,” said Eliesen, who is among 18 prominent Canadians calling for dam construction to stop until an independent team of experts can determine if the geotechnical problems can be resolved and at what cost. “It’s disingenuous for Premier [John] Horgan to try to suggest, ‘Well, I just found out about it recently.’ If that’s the case, he should fire the public servants who are representing the province.”

The public only found out about significant issues with the Site C dam at the end of July, when BC Hydro released overdue reports saying the project faces unknown cost overruns, schedule delays and such profound geotechnical troubles that its overall health is classified as ‘red,’ meaning it is in serious trouble.

The Site C dam is the largest publicly funded infrastructure project in B.C.’s history. If completed, it will flood 128 kilometres of the Peace River and its tributaries, forcing families from their homes and destroying Indigenous gravesites, hundreds of protected archeological sites, some of Canada’s best farmland and habitat for more than 100 species vulnerable to extinction. Eliesen said geotechnical risks were a key reason BC Hydro’s board of directors rejected the project in the early 1990s, when he was at the helm of BC Hydro. “The geotechnical challenges have been there all these years,” said Eliesen, who is also the former Chair and CEO of Ontario Hydro, the former Chair of Manitoba Hydro and the former Chair and CEO of the Manitoba Energy Authority.

EDIT

https://thenarwhal.ca/bc-hydro-site-c-slope-instability-bcuc/

[hunter]

1. Dams are generally ghastly things.

We ought to be tearing them down, not building new ones.

Sadly, dams are regarded by many as good backup power for other misguided "renewable" energy schemes.

But the reality is that many natural riparian environments worldwide have been destroyed and the rest are threatened.