Hydro's McGregor project meets strong opposition
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Barely six months in existence, the McGregor Action Group can scarcely afford any letup yet in its battle to stop B.C. Hydro from damming the McGregor River, one of the Fraser's larger tributaries and a potentially major salmon breeder. But if victory for the environmentalists still is a long way off, the power corporation now knows that it is in for a fight.
There is pride in spokesman Graham Farstad's voice as he relates how the anti-dam campaign is going. The important thing is that Hydro has been forced to abandon its customary arrogance under the impact of popular opposition to its plans to back up the waters of a river which, including its own tributaries, could support an estimated 71,800 spring salmon spawners annually.
comes from a classified 1974 federal report detailing effects of Hydro's McGregor River proposal on the Fraser River salmon industry that environment minister Romeo LeBlanc has promised Farstad will be released "early in the New Year" following the action group's protests over the unwarranted secrecy.
Farstad says Hydro has "half a dozen" consulting companies in the field right now, assessing social, economic and environmental impact of the McGregor diversion.
This in itself is a victory for opponents of the plan, Farstad claims, as Hydro's original position denied the need for environmental studies.
"Now they won't announce their decision until the studies have been completed and released to the public," Farstad told The Fisherman. "The studies started in August and originally were due to be completed around April 1977, but the deadline has been extended until the fall at least."
Which means, in effect, a breathing space in which to develop the anti-damming campaign, even though in terms of publicity it probably is already more successful than any comparable effort. Having a head start on the project has made all the difference. "Public awareness is far ahead of where it has been on any other project prior to a final decision by Hydro," Farstad claims. "With the Revel-stoke project it wasn't until Hydro said it was going ahead that any group really started to get involved. We're years ahead of where they were at that time."
The relatively small amount of power to be obtained by backing up the McGregor River behind a 460-foot high earth fill dam compared to the Revelstoke potential — not to mention the potential damage to McGregor system spawning beds — also is in the action group's favor.
The Revelstoke project has a potential of 2,700 megawatts while the McGregor's contribution would be a mere 292, making it probably the weakest link in B.C. Hydro's whole chain of power proposals. Farstad surmises that the only reason the project is on the books is the existence of the W.A.C. Bennett dam on the Peace River. Backed
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up waters in the McGregor system would join the northward flowing Parsnip River and swell the huge storage basin known as Williston Lake.
"They wouldn't have to build any additional turbines or generating stations for the McGregor
New series of lectures
Dr. Peter Larkin, UBC dean of graduate studies, and author of a widely quoted 1973 paper on salmon enhancement, will be a featured speaker in this year's Westwater lecture series.
Commencing January 13, six speakers will examine the nature of Canadian coastal resources, management problems and the Westwater Centre's own
research program.
Dr. Larkin's lecture March 17, "What the 200-Mile Limit Means to Fish" should be of particular interest to fishing industry workers, who certainly would second the opinion he voiced in his 1973 essay that enough knowledge and expertise already existed to invest $100 million wisely in B.C. over the following three years in proven salmon enhancement programs.
"In present circumstances, with slow attrition of existing stocks, there is a decreasing stock to gamble with," he wrote at that time. "It is doubtful whether we should wait for positive demonstrations from a few projects before investing on a larger scale."
The Westwater lectures, offered in association with UBC's School of Community and Regional Planning, all will be held at 8 p.m. in the Vancouver Planetarium at 1100 Chestnut.
because it is a diversion project only," he explains.
Conversely, the damage it could cause is not small but great. The three-year-old and still unreleased federal environment department report estimated that tributaries of the McGregor could support a spawning capacity 30 times current levels, to a total of 18,352 spring salmon spawners. It estimated further that some 55,000 springs could be harvested if an enhancement program were undertaken, while eight additional upstream creeks could accommodate an extra 53,410 spawners. The proposed dam would flood 94 percent of currently utilized spawning grounds and 26 percent of the system's potential area. Damming also would reduce noticeably the water table in the Fraser system, raising water
vival rates of salmon stocks.
The UFAWU has made the struggle its own, voicing its support of the McGregor Action Group and bringing a resolution condemning B.C. Hydro's proposed dam onto the floor of the recent B.C. Federation of Labor convention. Other organizations supporting the action group are the B.C. Wildlife Federation, the Spruce City Wildlife Association, Federation of B.C. Naturalists, Pacific Trollers Organization and Western Guides and Outfitters.
At least two New Democratic Party MLAs have said they're against the McGregor diversion. Three of the Fraser-Fort George Regional District's four directors have stated opposition, and Mackenzie town council recently voted unanimously to oppose the proposal, at least until alternative energy sources have been investigated fully.
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8/ THE FISHERMAN — JANUARY 12, 1977