Whitehorse Daily Star

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Photo by Chuck Tobin

MAJOR CONCERN – Zoologist Don Reid told a public forum last week that the Yukon government’s push for a new hydro dam across another Yukon river is a significant issue.

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Photo by Chuck Tobin

SHARING THEIR EXPERIENCE – Luke Williams, Jimmy Johnny and Patrick James, left to right, discuss their experiences related to the Yukon’s major hydro facilities in Whitehorse, Aishihik and Mayo.

‘This Next Generation Hydro is a major concern’

Big hydro causes big problems, say critics of major hydro projects who attended last week’s public forum sponsored by the Yukon Conservation Society.

By Chuck Tobin on October 6, 2015

Big hydro causes big problems, say critics of major hydro projects who attended last week’s public forum sponsored by the Yukon Conservation Society.

The forum featured presentations on alternate sources of renewable energy other than a major dam across another Yukon river.

Some 85 participants heard from representatives of the three Yukon First Nations whose traditional territories have been impacted by the Yukon’s existing hydro dams.

Two technical experts presented evidence indicating damming a river and creating a large reservoir upstream will inevitably have a significant negative impact.

The Yukon government has invested $2 million in what is referred to as the Next Generation Hydro project.

Ten potential sites for major dams have been identified on six different Yukon rivers. Each proposal would require damming the entire river and flooding vast areas to create a storage reservoir.

A final recommendation along with a supporting business case was to be presented to Premier Darrell Pasloski and his cabinet before the end of the year, though the exercise is several months behind schedule.

“Our conclusion was that this Next Generation Hydro is a major concern,” zoologist Don Reid of the Wildlife Conservation Society Canada said in his presentation at the society’s forum.

“Our concern is we are going to go down that path again when there are viable alternatives, some of which we heard about today.”

Reid told the audience the ability to reduce the negative impact of major dams is minimal.

Particularly troublesome is the fluctuating water levels required when operating a hydro dam, and how they impact all wildlife, especially fish and other aquatic animals like muskrats and beavers who could find themselves high and dry in the spring, he said.

He noted flooding areas to store water for power generation in the winter and then drawing down the level causes the release of greenhouse gas from rotting vegetation, and the release of mercury otherwise locked in the soil.

The maximum range of fluctuation for the storage and drawdown of water in Schwatka Lake and the Southern Lakes is 3.4 metres, he told the participants.

Reid said some of the 10 options being explored by the Next Generation Hydro project call for fluctuations of between 15 and 20 metres.

“Our conclusion is that the major hydro being proposed by Next Generation Hydro may be renewable, but they are not green,” fisheries biologist Al von Finster, Reid’s co-presenter, told the audience.

He said varying water levels can increase the amount of sediments in the river beyond natural levels, resulting in higher fish mortality.

It can affect the natural water temperatures, and alter the downstream flow of nutrients, he said.

The conservation society scheduled its forum for last Wednesday to dovetail with a technical workshop originally scheduled by the Next Generation team for Oct. 1 and 2.

The Next Generation workshop was postponed and rescheduled to the end of November.

Participants at the forum heard from elder Jimmy Johnny of Mayo’s First Nation of Nacho Nyak Dun, elder Patrick James of the Carcoss-Tagish First Nation and Luke Williams of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations.

They all told of the how the hydro projects in Whitehorse, Aishihik and Mayo have not only altered the landscape and the environment, but have also had significant cultural affects.

“It is hard for me to talk about wildlife impacts and not talk about the impact on the First Nation people because we have always considered ourselves as part of the land, part of the water,” said James, a former Carcross-Tagish chief.

James said before White Pass built the original control structure on the Yukon River, historical records indicate there were hunting and fish camps, drying racks for salmon and food caches all along Tagish Lake.

He said they all disappeared eventually.

The Carcross-Tagish First Nation has been dealing with the fallout from more than 100 years of development, and it’s still coming, James said.

He said the First Nation is not opposed to development, but it must be done in full consultation with Carcross-Tagish, from the very beginning.

“When you work together, you get good results and everybody is happy,” James told the forum. “But when you start doing things behind closed doors, that is when the trouble starts.”

Williams said the effects of the Aishihik Lake hydro facility, Yukon Energy’s primary storage reservoir for wintertime use with an operating range of 2.1 metres, have been entirely negative.

It hurts fish stocks, impacts traplines and poses a danger in the winter when water is drawn down, causing the ice to weaken or overflow to occur, he said.

Luke said the fluctuating water levels kill fish eggs by increasing hydrostatic pressure when the reservoir is full – when it’s lowered, the eggs are left to freeze.

“The white fish has really suffered.”

Promises made in the 1970s to make up for the impact of the Aishihik Lake hydro facility have gone unfulfilled, he said.

“At the end of the lake, the Aishihik people have absolutely no benefits whatsoever from the development of the dam,” Luke said.

Similar sentiments were expressed by Johnny.

Mayo Lake, he said, is much larger now than it was before the dam was built in the 1950s.

Elders speak of a time when the salmon in the Mayo River were so abundant, the river was red with fish, he said.

Today, said Johnny, the fish can’t even get up the river.

Anne Middler, the conservation society’s energy analyst and co-ordinator of the day-long forum, told the participants when folks talk about the benefits of Yukon’s “legacy hydro,” they talk about reliability, and relatively low rates for electricity.

“However, at the Yukon Conservation Society, we have always believed there is more to it.”

Participants heard of how it may be possible to focus on smaller sources of renewable energy to provide for increasing demand rather than damming another river.

The community of Atlin, B.C., for instance, has been off diesel generation since 2009 when its new hydro facility became operational.

The facility pipes water from Surprise Lake down Pine Creek to a power house with minimal impact to the lake and creek, participants heard.

Another example was Alaska Power and Telephone, which 20 years ago provided 95 per cent of its energy with diesel generation.

But with projects like Skagway’s low-impact Goat Lake Hydro Project, today the company supplies 75 per cent of its power with low-impact hydro.

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