Editor:
Narrows Inlet Hydro Holding Corp. is proposing to construct the Narrows Inlet Hydro project which consists of five hydroelectric facilities in the Tzoonie River Valley approximately 50km north of Sechelt.
Everything I have learned about this proposal to date leads me to conclude that this project is not in the public or environmental interest.
The construction and operation of this project will have serious impacts on fish and wildlife, including species at risk such as grizzly bears, wild salmon, mountain goats and marbled murrelets.
Ramona Lake, a beautiful alpine lake, will be transformed to a holding pond with a barge and pumps used to feed the power plant.
The proponent, Renewable Power Corporation, already operates a lake storage operation that resulted in a huge sediment dump into Tyson Creek and Narrows Inlet. According to the company's own environmental assessment reports, the potential damage from fine sediment at the Ramona site is even greater.
Increasingly, people today understand that the most important asset we have on this planet is the natural life support system. Nature produces the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat and regulates the planet temperature.
Based on criteria such as carbon value, air quality protection value, watershed value, pollution value, biodiversity value, etc., the David Suzuki Foundation determined the measurable non-market ecosystem services provided by the environment analyzed in a recent report to be $6,000 per hectare, per year. There is no reason to expect the values provided by the Tzoonie River watershed and the other areas affected by the proposed power project to be any less than this.
Without question, the proposed project will result in a diminished value of the ecosystem services provided by the existing natural environment.
The Environmental Assessment Office should not issue an environmental assessment certificate for this project.
Hans Penner, Roberts Creek
