UN expresses concern about Site C and Wood Buffalo park
Less flooding in UNESCO site’s delta may make wetlands dry out, become woods
A United Nations report is expressing serious concerns about the downstream impacts of B.C. Hydro’s Site C dam on Wood Buffalo National Park, a World Heritage Site spanning the Alberta-Northwest Territories border.
A decision report by the World Heritage Committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization takes issue with Canada’s position not to further investigate the impact of the 1,100-megawatt dam on the park.
The report urges Canada “to make every effort to assess and understand the potential impacts of the Site C hydropower project and of the various major dams on the Peace River” on the “outstanding universal value” of the park.
Canada is also urged to “explore all options to ensure best practices are followed during all stages of the project, including impact prevention and mitigation, and regulating flow, should the Site C dam become operational.”
While Canada has promised to address the impacts of proposed and future development projects affecting Wood Buffalo, the report notes, “it is regrettable that these commitments currently exclude the Site C hydropower project.
“The ongoing absence of a specific assessment of Site C’s potential impacts on the ... property does not permit an informed judgment about irreversible decisions, and this absence should be rectified.”
Hydro spokesperson Mora Scott said in response that during a three-year federal-provincial environmental assessment process, Hydro commissioned studies from leading scientific researchers to evaluate the potential downstream effects of Site C. “The studies concluded that Site C would have no measurable effect on the Peace-Athabasca Delta, which is located 1,100 kilometres downstream of the project,” she said.
The Joint Review Panel agreed, adding that a cumulative effects study is not required, Scott added.
Victoria lawyer Mark Gustafson, who represents the Mikisew Cree First Nation of northern Alberta, said in an interview Thursday there are fears that impacts of two existing Hydro dams on the Peace River will be exacerbated by Site C.
“The major concern is that unless the flows in the Peace River can follow a more natural pattern you don’t get the flooding in the (Peace-Athabasca) Delta that is needed to keep it a functioning ecosystem,” he said.
Gustafson noted that Canada risks having Wood Buffalo placed on an endangered list if it does not live up to its obligations and potentially become “one of the few countries in the world to ever lose World Heritage status.”
In 2014, a federal Joint Review Panel recommended the $9-billion Site C proceed, while urging the B.C. Utilities Commission to consider the question of need. The Liberal provincial government of Christy Clark dismissed that advice, but a coalition of NDP Leader John Horgan, B.C’s premier-designate, and Green Leader Andrew Weaver have indicated they’ll make that referral.
Created in 1922 and a World Heritage Site since 1983, Wood Buffalo is Canada’s largest national park at 45,000 square kilometres. It is home to the world’s largest wood bison population and the last remaining natural nesting site of the whooping crane. The Peace-Athabasca Delta is one of the most concentrated nesting environments for geese and ducks on the planet.
The heritage committee report also notes that Wood Buffalo is threatened by oilsands mining in Alberta, climate change, and inadequate environmental monitoring.
A joint mission of the World Heritage Centre and International Union for Conservation of Nature visited Wood Buffalo in 2016.
In 2013, Parks Canada expressed concerns about the cumulative impact of Site C, arguing that Hydro’s two existing dams on the Peace River have already damaged the “ecological integrity” of wildlife habitat downstream.
The W.A.C. Bennett and Peace Canyon dams, built in 1967 and 1980, have altered the surface hydrology of the delta by reducing the magnitude and frequency of summer floods and “ice jam flood events,” Parks Canada said.
Flood waters from the Peace and Athabasca rivers are necessary to maintain the delta; in the absence of seasonal flooding, areas of wetlands are vulnerable to drying out in summer and being taken over by woody vegetation.