A flood of fears over U.S. dam plans

By Larry Pynn
Vancouver Sun
August 8, 2009

Valuable Canadian wildlife habitats, aboriginal and private lands could all be at risk

You couldn't ask for a more deceptive location for a hydroelectric dam to flood southern B.C.'s rarest and most productive grassland landscape.

The shallow Similkameen River flows languidly across the international border southeast of Keremeos near Osoyoos into Washington state's Okanogan County, slicing through tawny semi-arid hills flecked with sage and ponderosa pine that rise sweet and warm on the morning air.

Motoring along the less-travelled Loomis-Oroville Road shadowing the Similkameen River, one can look down at the curiosity of modern-day miners dressed in wetsuits positioned on small platforms mid-river while employing hoses and generators to scour the gravel bottom for gold.

"They're pretty tight-lipped," offers Dan Boettger, director of regulatory and environmental affairs of the Okanogan County public utility district No. 1.

Not far away, Boettger points to orange flagging tape on a wooden stake barely visible on the hillside across the river that marks the maximum high-water mark under a proposal for a dam here that would back water up into Canada's portion of the Similkameen.

"We don't take it lightly," Boettger insists. "We understand there are a lot of concerns. It's typical human nature."

Even further downstream is Shanker's Bend, a lazy turn in the river where you could imagine yourself inner-tubing on a hot summer's day or sleeping on a beach towel on one of the exposed gravel bars.

At the moment the bars are occupied by a flock of Canada geese, the hillsides by more serious wildlife.

"Watch where you step," warns Boettger, parking his SUV on the roadside. "We've got lots of rattlesnakes."

The rock bluffs rising from the river at Shanker's Bend make this stretch of the Similkameen the perfect place to build a dam. "Less infrastructure to put in," he confirms.

Although there have been proposals for dams in this area dating back to the 1920s, the latest and perhaps most serious incarnation results from a special state funding initiative for water issues in eastern Washington.

The dam is touted as providing numerous benefits on the U.S. side: hydro-electric power, water for irrigation, flood control, and a reservoir from which water could be drawn in summer during low flows to raise water temperatures and benefit fish downstream of Similkameen Falls.

A lingering drought is part of the issue, as is the concern in some parts of the county that not enough water is flowing from B.C. "There is that concern," Boettger says. "Less water is making it to the border."

A preliminary engineering report released in July on Shanker's Bend detailed three potential options:

• A high dam, with a maximum water surface elevation of 1,289 feet, would have 1.3 million acre-feet of storage and produce up to 74 megawatts of hydro power and up to 2,000 cubic feet per second of additional water during the traditional low-flow period between July and September.

• A medium dam with a depth of 1,175 feet would have a capacity of 138,000 acre feet and produce up to 23 megawatts of power, while yielding up to 500 cubic feet per second of additional water July to September.

• A lower dam standing 1,155 feet would yield 20,000 acre feet and 19.6 megawatts, while supplying minimal in-stream flows beyond what would occur naturally.

The utility district has yet to decide its next move in response to the engineering report.

The largest of three potential options would inundate rare and important land on the Canadian side of the Similkameen, including Crown, aboriginal and private lands. On the U.S. side it would flood largely federal Bureau of Land Management property, along with some private lands.

"All it is is a study, and it hasn't been done in a vacuum," Boettger emphasizes. "There have been lots of discussions on both sides of the border. And no decisions have been made."

Formal opposition

On Thursday, the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen voted unanimously to write the Okanogan public utility district and the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to formally oppose the high-dam proposal, and to urge the provincial and federal governments to do the same.

"They need to continually be aware we're not in favour of this," said director George Hanson, the owner of Seven Stones Winery, whose eight hectares of vineyards would be flooded by the high dam.

"It seems absurd to me, actually, that one country would flood another country. And absurd that our provincial and federal governments aren't jumping all over this."

The Vancouver Sun first wrote about the Shanker's Bend dam proposal in October 2007, but it wasn't until March 2009 -- two months before the provincial election -- that Environment Minister Barry Penner sought intervenor status, a request refused because it came too late for the initial permitting process.

In fact, only the B.C. chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society took the issue seriously enough to get its act together and achieve intervenor status on behalf of any Canadian group or government agency.

"Nobody believed this could be a possibility," executive director Chloe O'Loughlin said Friday of the dam proposal. "This is real. People need to pay attention."

Penner wrote in a six-page letter to the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission seeking intervenor status that the largest dam proposal would flood at least 3,600 hectares of Canada, including two aboriginal reserves, two provincial protected areas, a potential national park, and high-quality agricultural land.

At least 20 blue- and red-listed animal and plant species would be impacted, Penner wrote, as well as 16 listed species at risk under Canada's Species at Risk Act, "which prohibits any action which threatens, damages or destroys a threatened or endangered species or its habitat."

Said Penner: "These potential impacts are unacceptable to the province."

High-water implications

The minister also expressed concerns that even the proposed lower dams could have implications for B.C. during years of unusually high water. "We believe careful consideration and environment scrutiny is required before any decision is made regarding the low dam proposal."

On Friday, Penner said he would resubmit a request for intervenor status should the project continue to move ahead, but suggested that any further development could be 18 to 24 months away.

O'Loughlin said her group remains opposed to any dam, saying it would pose a threat to the migration of rare grassland species and its cold reservoir would alter the area's unique micro-climate.

Hanson sits on a cross-border steering committee related to the dam proposal and believes that the project would not go ahead against Canada's wishes, given international obligations under the International Joint Commission.

But O'Loughlin cautioned against leaving the matter to the IJC, warning that may be too late in the game for Canada to take a strong position in opposition. "The dam has to be stopped now."

Boettger countered that killing the public utility's efforts may not prevent a private developer from coming forward in future with another dam proposal.

Asked if the U.S. could change opponents' positions through cash compensation, Hanson said: "I don't think this can be bought, this particular issue. It's a very beautiful part of Canada ... and I don't think it's for sale."

Speaking of the potential to prostitute one's values, it's worth noting that one plausible theory explaining how Shanker's Bend got its name dates back to the area's mining heyday and refers to chancre (pronounced shanker), the ulcer associated with the primary stage of syphilis.

"I heard it had something to do with prostitution for one thing," Oroville historian Dorothy Petry said with a laugh. "A side effect of the trade. I don't think you want to put that in the paper."

Told of the explanation, Hanson, too, chuckled. "This project is similar to that. They want to create a disease that spreads. Oh my goodness, I'm gonna have some fun with that."

lpynn@vancouversun.com

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