BC Hydro goes fishing for answers over Grohman Narrows dredging
By Nelson Daily Staff
By Suzy Hamilton, The Nelson Daily
BC Hydro was fishing for responses and the fishermen were looking for answers at the recent public meeting in Nelson to discuss dredging Grohman Narrows.
“One fisherman said he had fished on that stretch for 40 years,” said Eileen Delehanty Pearkes who was at the meeting. “I had the sense that the audience was not very trusting.”
Delehanty Pearkes, a local author and researcher, is writing a book about the Columbia Basin and the Columbia River Treaty, with a working title of A River Captured. Her research has taken her to international meetings about the Columbia River, the Treaty and other organizational meetings with an interest in water.
She, along with more than 100 residents, attended the June 17 meeting to learn more about Hydro’s plans.
The power corporation has begun to explore the feasibility of dredging the accumulated silt in Grohman Narrows, a bottleneck between the West Arm of Kootenay Lake and the Kootenay River.
High rainfall in 2012 brought the lake up to record levels and a renewed interest in altering the Narrows to increase flow and reduce flooding in high water years.
The dredging would have another benefit the meeting learned: Increased flows would allow BC Hydro to generate more electricity, and this, according to Delehanty Pearkes, made many at the meeting suspicious of BC Hydro’s motives.
“There was a strong current from those attending the meeting that ‘this is our water’”, said Delehanty Pearkes. “The people were not interested in having the wool being pulled over their eyes. Residents are paying attention.”
BC Hydro’s Community Relations Mary Anne Coules agreed.
“At the meeting, several attendees did express concerns about the project impacting Kootenay Lake levels, and we were pleased to have the opportunity to clarify this concern.
“There would be little, if any, change in lake levels compared to existing seasonal levels during the summer months, and through fall and winter. Rather, the project will allow BC Hydro to redistribute and better control water passage downstream during the spring freshet period, resulting in a reduction in freshet peak and duration.”
A deeper Grohman Narrows would reduce this seasonal constraint, she said.
“Operations at Corra Linn dam would still remain the ultimate control of lake levels as they are today for most of the rest of the year. Dredging of the Narrows would not lead to an unavoidable reduction in lake levels.”
Coules said that at this stage, it is BC Hydro’s plan to learn all it can about the impacts and benefits of dredging.
“The project is in its very initial stages where we are listening to local folks and learning about the interests and concerns of people in the area. We are learning about the technical, environmental and other challenges with respect to potential improvements to Grohman Narrows.”
Coules said stage one of the project will run until October, looking at potential costs and benefits. An assessment of the results will determine if the project proceeds she said. More detailed studies of potential system-wide effects and public engagements could take up to two years after which a decision would be made.
“If the project is to proceed, the range for increased generation for the BC Hydro Kootenay Canal Generating Station, the four FortisBC Kootenay River Plants and Columbia Power’s Brilliant Dam combined is in the order of 1 – 1.5% per year,” she said.
Delehanty Pearkes said that the dredging would not affect the Columbia River Treaty. “The strength of the response shows that people are interested because of the subject of the Treaty renegotiation,” she said. “It probably wouldn’t have been the same ten years ago.”
“There’s a strong sense of local ownership.”
As for the impact on the fish, said Delehanty Pearkes, “the jury is out on the fishery. It’s not clear yet if the project would be completely and wholly bad for the fish.”
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