Former Hydro VP says it's about dam time

Michael Smyth
The Province
March 04, 2007

British Columbia lost a major public asset two years ago when Yakout Mansour was lured to California.

The former B.C. Hydro vice-president was once in charge of our critical power-grid operations. His expertise was noticed south of the border and he was head-hunted by California's own grid operator. He now regularly advises Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on how to meet the energy demands of 30 million customers.

His biggest daily challenge: ensuring the massive system keeps running -- and, if parts go down in a "brownout," how quickly he can find replacement power to patch the hole.

That's where "firm" energy supplies become so important. Wind and solar power are in vogue because of global warming, but those sources are intermittent. No wind, no sunshine, means no power.

But a large-scale hydro installation is a different matter. That kind of power is abundant, cheap and -- most important of all -- instantaneous.

So now Mansour has a message for his home province: It's time to build the Site C dam.

"It's way overdue," says Mansour, a key contact between B.C. and Schwarzenegger's office as the two jurisdictions work on a climate-change accord. "When I heard the B.C. government is looking again at Site C, my reaction was 'Yeah! Great! Finally!' It absolutely has to happen."

But not without a fight.

The Site C project would see a third massive dam built on the Peace River near Fort St. James. An area 15 times the size of Stanley Park would be flooded, affecting fish and animal habitat and forcing relocation of about two dozen families. It would take seven years to build, cost at least $3.5 billion and generate 900 megawatts of power, enough to serve 500,000 homes.

It would be reliable "firm" energy, generating no greenhouse-gas emissions, critical to B.C.'s target of reducing emissions by one-third by 2020.

But there's a reason the project has been on the books for 30 years and never built: the engineering challenge -- and the up-front cost -- is immense. Opposition from environmentalists, First Nations and perhaps even Alberta could be even bigger.

Bur Monsour wonders if the province really has a choice in the matter.

"Energy conservation is important, but you're not going to meet growing demand with conservation alone," he says. "British Columbia has a fantastic conservation program. Major innovations have been made in energy-efficient products, yet the demand keeps going up."

His bottom line: Build the damn dam. It's a point of view increasingly attractive to the B.C. government, and I suspect it will take his advice.