B.C. Hydro hit with another Site C enforcement order
B.C. Hydro has received yet another enforcement order from the province’s Environmental Assessment Office related to a contractor’s work at the $9-billion Site C dam project that poses a threat to fish stocks.
The order from Chris Parks, senior compliance and enforcement officer, states that on Feb. 28, 2017, he received a report from the project’s Independent Environmental Monitor. The report indicated that on Feb. 16, 2017, staff employed by project contractor Peace River Hydro Partners pumped sediment-laden water from a flooded work area to a ditch that connects directly to a fish-bearing watercourse identified as L3. The report also identified ongoing erosion and sediment transport non-compliance in the L3 ravine since Nov. 8, 2016.
Parks concluded the activities represent continued non-compliance with Hydro’s conditions of approval of Site C related to the control of run-off water and sediment during construction of the 1,100-megawatt dam.
The non-compliance has “resulted in observable deposition of sediments in the L3 watercourse, and may have adversely affected fish and fish habitat in the L3 watercourse and the Peace River,” Parks writes in the order.
Hydro is ordered to submit a water-quality monitoring plan specific to the L3 watercourse and Peace River downstream, including the installation of turbidity-monitoring equipment and the reporting of all future sediment releases.
Hydro has until March 31 to submit an assessment of the potential adverse effects to fish and fish habitat associated with the project’s historic sediment releases to L3 and the Peace River.
Hydro spokesman Dave Conway said Thursday the Crown corporation is working closely with Peace River Hydro Partners and the EAO to become compliant.
“We have an erosion and sediment control plan in place,” he said in a written statement. “However, we experienced some excess water challenges last month after heavy rainfall and the warmest winter weather for the region in 30 years.”
Conway added earlier this year Hydro committed to expanded erosion and sediment control, including reporting, mapping and weekly updates. From October 2016 to February 2017, Hydro conducted more than 1,000 inspections on site to better ensure compliance with erosion and sediment-control requirements, he said.
Postmedia News reported in December that Hydro’s failure to heed multiple warnings about the situation prompted a high-level meeting with EAO officials to bring the megaproject into compliance.
“Continued non-compliance with these requirements has caused adverse effects to water quality and fish habitat as a result of the transport of sediments” to the Peace and Moberly river systems, the EAO concluded. “B.C. Hydro has previously been issued three warnings and an order in regards to erosion and sediment control on the Site C project.”