Re: Site C.
I too have a view on the Site C dam.
My concerns are based on existing knowledge I have read in the paper, local contacts and on some Google research.
In 1959, my dad took me fishing in the Spray Lake Reservoir/dam, just above Canmore, Alberta. That was 56 years ago, and to the best of my knowledge, its still producing electricity with water turning the turbines. It's a beautiful lake and I spent two decades, fishing, camping, boating snowmobiling and hiking. I want my ashes scattered there when I pass on.
I have yet to see anybody from the power company, as the lake fills and drains rotating turbines. Costs must be low and there is no impact on the air quality, and has never been a problem to anybody that I'm aware of. I never took drinking water to that lake, the water was clear, cold and real good.
I Googled gas-fired electricity generated power plants. It was advertised as low CO2 emissions. Low, not zero.
So it does have an impact on the global warming and air pollution, I'm having to conclude.
Also it has to use natural gas, which demands the observation that we are "burning a non renewable, natural resource, and to create another energy; electricity. This promotes gas exploration, drilling, possibly fracking, and pipelines. The massive plant resembled an oil sands plant with its size and lights. There are environmentalists that can't be happy about this part of the proposal and it's an energy trade off.
There was an estimated 450,000 homes could be supplied power by the Site C finished project. At $200 a month (a nice round budget number) this would generate $90,000,000 a month, or one billion and eighty million dollars a year. Ten years would generate more than the estimated cost of the dam.
Right now, we are having a world economy meltdown with layoffs, bankruptcies and very low Canadian Dollar issues. This is perfect timing for this mega project as there is parked equipment all over B.C. and Alberta vying for this work as they sit idle. Low oil and gas prices has exacerbated the low economy in Alberta and B.C.
This was what happened in the States in the Dirty Thirties, and the Boulder Dam project was constructed, at "rock bottom prices" and workers from all over the States came to find a job. This dam is still in operations nearly one 100 years later.
Contractors are bidding serious low prices to get working. People will get off social assistance, EI and poverty conditions and the public gets power. It's a win-win situation.
Given the above, the timing and all circumstances, I cannot in any clear conscience support shutting this project down, especially for the alternative of "gas-fired generators" or any other form of electrical generations, including wind turbines. Quite the opposite. I dread the loss of such.
I'm backing Site C full bore.
Erle Martz
Prince George
