Ten general sites involving 16 rough proposals have been shortlisted as candidates for the Yukon’s next major hydro dam.

The shortlist was released online Wednesday afternoon.

The Next Generation Hydro team has been tasked with providing the Yukon Development Corp. with the information it needs before recommending one or more sites to the territorial cabinet by the end of the year.

The Crown corporation has been instructed by the cabinet to consider the environmental, social and economic impacts, along with the territory’s future energy needs and supply options.

Each of the 16 proposals involves flooding stretches of wilderness in the 10 general areas.

A proposal for one of the smaller hydro facilities at Frances Lake off the Robert Campbell Highway calls for flooding 165 square kilometres, and raising the lake level by 23 metres.

A larger facility at the same site – one of the 16 options – calls for flooding 235 square kilometres and raising the level of Frances Lake by 38 metres.

Another option for the Pelly River near Pelly Crossing would flood 170 square kilometres, but would create twice the hydro generating capacity of the Whitehorse Rapids Dam.

During a technical briefing Wednesday, members of the Next Generation technical team emphasized nothing is cast in stone, that any of the 16 options could morph into something much different than it appears now.

It all comes down to matching the territory’s future energy needs with one of the 16 options or different variations of those options, considering social, environmental and financial costs, they explained.

In May 2013, Premier Darrell Pasloski and his territorial cabinet instructed the publicly owned development corporation, Yukon Energy’s parent company, to undertake the Next Generation Hydro project. The cabinet provided the corporation with $2 million to do the work.

The first two-day workshop was held in November and the second two-day workshop began this morning at the Westmark Whitehorse Hotel. A public meeting to discuss the material gathered so far is scheduled for 7:00 this evening at the Westmark.

Brad Cathers, the newly appointed minister for the development corporation and the Yukon Energy, opened the workshop this morning with welcoming remarks.

“This project is a priority for the Yukon government,” Cathers told representatives of First Nations, the business community and different organizations such as the Yukon Conservation Society.

“The Next Generation Hydro project is an important step in meeting Yukon’s energy needs.”

The focus of the workshop today was a technical paper regarding rising demand in the next 20 to 50 years based on population growth and additional industrial needs.

One scenario has demand growing by 25 per cent in the next 20 years.

It’s been made clear in past presentations and discussions that Yukon Energy is still responsible for meeting short-term growth with more modest generating options.

The Next Generation project is mandated to recommend larger, long-term solutions.

Technical team leader Peter Helland of Midgard Consulting explained during Wednesday’s briefing that all hydro projects have impacts, just as the 16 options do.

It’s a matter of balancing and mitigating those impacts while providing for future demand, he said.

“So we are basically trying to get a sense of ‘is the glove the right size?’”

Helland emphasized some of the material used to shortlist the 16 options is old and needs to be brought up to date by the project team using the science available today in what is strictly a desktop exercise that does not include field research.

Obtaining support from the general public and First Nations is of critical importance, it was said Wednesday.

All 16 options occur in one of four traditional territories: the Kaska First Nations of southeast Yukon, the Selkirk First Nation, the Teslin Tlingit Council and Mayo’s First Nation of Nacho Nyak Dun.

Under the existing schedule, the Next Generation team is to wrap the technical material and community input into a viability study for the development corporation’s board of directors to consider this fall.

Before the end of this year, the board is to recommend one or more proposals for the Yukon government to go forward with.

Six of the hydro dam options are along the Pelly River watershed, another six are inside the Liard River and Frances Lake watershed, three are along the Stewart River and one dam proposal is on the Teslin River.

The Teslin River dam option in its current form would provide 55 megawatts of new generation, or 15 more megawatts than the total hydro generating capacity at the Whitehorse Rapids Dam.

Located more than 90 kilometres downriver from Johnson’s Crossing, the Teslin option would flood a total of 55 square kilometres upstream, over a distance of 75 kilometres.

The largest of the current options, a 300-megawatt facility at Fraser Falls on the Upper Stewart River, would flood 570 square kilometres.

Using older and newer cost estimates, the price tag for each of the 16 options ranges from several hundred million dollars to well over $2 billion.

Also to be taken into consideration by the Next Generation team is the distance to the existing grid and the cost of the transmission line that would be required.