Somebody’s hunting grounds are going to be flooded, says the director of communications for the Yukon government’s Next Generation Hydro project.

Darielle Talarico told some 80-plus attending a workshop Wednesday to discuss the future of hydro generation in the territory that tough decisions lie ahead.

And there will be people who won’t be happy with those decisions, she suggested.

Those attending the workshop spent the day talking about where the Next Generation project is now, where it’s heading and how long it will take.

They heard of how the B.C. consulting firm hired to conduct site investigations has whittled the list down to 16 potential sites, and will come up with a shorter list of six to 15 sites for the next workshop at the end of January.

Peter Helland of Midgard Consulting explained how his team started with 200-plus locations compiled from hydro studies going back to the 1960s.

It was cut down to 108 sites using high-level criteria, such as casting away duplicate proposals for the same river, or sites that didn’t amount to anything more than a brief mention in past documentation, he said.

Helland said the list was cut down to 47 sites using tighter guidelines, “showstoppers,” such as proposals inside national parks, or any projects on the mainstem of the Yukon River.

There was one project, for instance, which would have flooded Pelly Crossing, he explained.

Helland said the list of 47 potential sites was dropped to 16 largely by economics, cutting projects that were just too expensive, such as the proposal for the Porcupine River and the mammoth transmission line required to reach the grid.

One member of the yesterday’s audience asked about others matters, “smaller” matters, to be taken into consideration.

“What about flooding on the my hunting ground?” he asked Helland.

“Again, I would say somebody’s hunting grounds are going to get flooded,” Talarico responded. “That is why we are talking about it.

“There is not one project in the Yukon that is not going to have an impact, and if it’s in my backyard, I am going to be upset.”

Talarico said the Next Generation Hydro project is meant to provide Yukoners with the information needed to have an informed and open discussion about the tough decisions that lie ahead.

Helland’s job is not to drill down and look at the value of individual cottages as part of his team’s work.

Rather, the job of Midgard Consulting and their associates is to develop a shortlist of sites, examine other issues such as connecting the Yukon grid to Alaska and B.C., and prepare a series of technical papers to help inform the debate, she said.

The company, Talarico added, will be analyzing future population growth and the corresponding demand for electricity, but as the audience heard yesterday, the days of surplus hydro electricity in the Yukon are gone.

Helland said the Midgard team will also be providing cost estimates, and looking at options for developing projects in stages to keep pace with growth, rather than building everything at once.

Talarico said there will be ample time to discuss individual and community values as the Yukon Development Corp. moves toward the end of next year, when it will recommend one or more sites to the territorial cabinet.

And the work in the next two months to prepare the short list for the end of January will also look at more specific impacts, she said.

Talarico said it will involve, for example, looking at how aboriginal settlement lands, territorial parks or private lands will be affected, at a high level.

The Yukon government announced $2 million in funding last year for the development corporation to conduct the planning exercise.

The intent is to have one or more projects built in 10 or 15 years to supply growth in the next 20 to 50 years, Energy, Mines and Resources Minister Scott Kent indicated in his welcoming remarks Wednesday morning.

Talarico explained it’s either the Yukon pursue renewable energy options like hydro, or accept more greenhouse gas emissions by installing additional generation powered by diesel fuel and natural gas.

She also emphasized, however, that this is a planning exercise. It will be up to the territorial cabinet to ultimately decide whether to move onto the next phase, after it receives the recommendations from the development corporation’s board of directors.

Of the 16 sites presented Wednesday afternoon from which the shortlist will be created by the end of January, six are on the Pelly River; six are on the Frances River north of Watson Lake; two are on the Stewart River; one is on the Teslin River and one is on the Hess River that spills into the Stewart River.

Helland, a consultant who specializes in hydro projects in North America, explained almost all involve a dam or a control structure across the entire river, along with the creation of upstream storage, a reservoir.

Though his team members have not looked at how much flooding will be caused by the various options, they will be doing that work following the creation of the short list in January, he explained.

It was explained the plan is to take the seven technical papers Midgard will produce, combine them with the extensive consultation that will occur between now and June and then begin a viability study at the end of June.

Once the viability study is delivered in the fall, a business case will be built for each option, and then a recommendation will be delivered to cabinet by the end of the year.

The current list of the 16 sites identifies projects varying in size from 25 megawatts on the Frances River up to 300 megawatts at Fraser Falls on the Upper Stewart River.

The total hydro capacity at the Whitehorse Rapids Dam is 40 megawatts.

The Aishihik hydro plant has a total capacity of 37 MW, while there are 15 megawatts of capacity at Mayo, and another 1.3 MW at the Fish Lake Road hydro facility owned by ATCO Electric Yukon.

While the list of 16 did not assign an estimated cost for each of the options, cost estimates for some of the proposals have been identified in previous studies.

The Fraser Falls project was identified in a 2009 study by Yukon Energy, and the cost was estimated at $2.5 billion in 2009 dollars.

A 254-megawatt project at Granite Canyon east of Pelly Crossing was also identified by Yukon Energy’s study. It was also the subject of a pre-feasibility study going back to 1982. The 2009 study put the cost at $1.6 billion.

A 68-page work plan that lays out the Next Generation Hydro project suggests whatever option the territory chooses will likely require assistance from the federal government, as the Yukon’s borrowing limit it $400 million.

The following is a list of the 16 sites, from which the short list will be created by the end of January:

• Detour Canyon – Pelly River, 65 megawatts;

• Detour Canyon and Fortin Lake dam – Pelly River, 100 MW;

• Granite Canyon (large) – Pelly River, 254 MW;

• Granite Canyon (small) – Pelly River, 80 MW;

• Hoole Canyon and Fortin Lake dam – Pelly River, 40 MW;

• Slate Rapids – Pelly River, – 42 MW;

• False Canyon – Frances River, 58 MW;

• Middle Canyon or lower (small) – Frances River, 14 MW;

• Middle Canyon or lower (large) – Frances River, 75 MW;

• Upper Canyon (large) – Frances River, 75 MW;

• Upper Canyon (medium) – Frances River, 58 MW:

• Upper Canyon (small) – Frances River, 25 MW;

• Fraser Falls (high) – Stewart River, 300 MW;

• Fraser Falls (low) – Stewart River, 100 MW;

• Two Mile Canyon – Hess River, 53 MW; and

• Teslin River – 55 MW.