Kemani II opponents claim project endangers salmon stocks

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Opponents of Alcan's Kemano II project in northern B.C. are predicting dire consequences for salmon stocks if the hydroelectric mega project goes ahead.

To draw attention to the $1.3 billion project that diverts water from the Nechako River, Greenpeace organized a rally outside the giant aluminum company's downtown Vancouver head offices recently.

The crowd of about 75 listened to speeches by area Natives, environmentalists and a former federal scientist who says Kemano II, or the Kemano Completion Project, will harm B.C.'s fish stocks by reducing the Nechako's flow by more than 80 percent.

They say the project was approved for the wrong reasons.

"The whole course of events in the deliberations of this project has been controlled politically instead of through science and good management," said Dr. Gordon Hartman, a biologist with the Department of Fisheries and Ocean (DPR) for 30 years.

Marvin Charlie, chief of the 60-member Chaslatta L'en Carrier Nation, said Kemani II threatened his people at Cheslatta Lake.

When the first phase of Kemano was built, the Cheslatta were forced to surrender their land and move north because of flooding. Their old homes were burned.

In the four decades since, they say the old lake shore village sites and cemeteries have been flooded 80 times, sweeping the remains of 50 Cheslatta into the rising waters.

But the Cheslatta haven't stopped thinking about the future.

"We have a big plan for Cheslatta Lake," said Charlie. "We hope to keep it as natural as possible, but the way the Alcan aluminum company's flooding it every year, year after year, maybe twice in the summer....":

Meanwhile, at public hearings held by the B.C. Utilities Commission in Prince George the day before the Vancouver rally, Alcan regional vice-president Dill rich said his company has the right to finish the project and that it will stand up to public scrutiny.

Rich said claims of an 80 per cent reduction in river flows are incorrect because they're based on levels before the first stage of Kemano. He said that's irrelevant because salmon stocks have been maintained at lower current levels.

"Under KCP, Nechako River flows at Prince George, as they exist today, will be reduced by 29 per cent and in the upper Nechako by 53 per cent.

The problems today are rooted in the 1950s when the B.C. government granted Alcan unlimited water rights in exchange for building a smelter and creating hydroelectric power for the province.

Key to the project is the Nechako River, which flows east in the country's most important salmon-spawning grounds. The Nechako River is a major tributary of the salmon-rich Fraser River, which flows about 750 kilometres south to Vancouver.

The first stage of Kemano involved damming the Nechako to reverse its flow westward to flood 200 kilometres of lakes and prime timber lands, creating the Nechako reservoir.

Alcan now diverts one-third of the Nechako's water, but it wants more - 88 per cent of the Nechako's flows - to expand its smelter operation and to generate more electricity for B.C. consumers.

Alcan announced plans for the completion project, a giant tunnel to allow a greater flow of water, in the 1970s.

But the DFO, whose job it is to protect fish, opposed the expansion because of the harm to salmon.

DFO minister Tom Siddon offered a compromise: Alcan could have 50 per cent (up to 75 per cent in some cases) of the Nechako's flow. Alcan insisted on 88 per cent and the court case was still set to go.

Five DFO scientists who worked on the impact of Kemano made it clear they felt Ottawa's compromise would harm the fish. Senior DFO officials told them to keep quiet or be dropped as expert witnesses for the case.

In August 187, a week after the court case began, senior federal officials met with Alcan executives at their Vancouver head offices to negotiate a deal. The court challenge was dropped.

Siddon said the deal would result in no net loss of fish habitat and would benefit fsheries.

The scientists were stunned. They charged that the amount of water granted to Alcan was less than half the minimum required to maintain the salmon stocks. They called procedures proposed to maintain the stocks faulty.

But Kemano II was to go ahead, and in 1988 construction began.

But environmentalists demanded a federal-provincial Environmental Assessment and Review Panel, standard procedure for such mega projects.

In 1990, however, the Conservative Cabinet passed a special order to exempt Kemano II from a review, the only time in Canada's history that's been done.

The exemption was later condemned by an all party committee of Parliament as illegal and unconstitutional.

Six years later, the new Liberal government has promised to reopen Kemano and remove the gag but to date nothing has been done.

Construction has been halted on the project at least until the public hearings are finished.

Meanwhile, the provincial NDP government says its hands are tied. It calls the agreement a backroom deal but says it's a binding legal document and the government must abide by it.

Premier Mike Harcourt commissioned lawyer Murray Rankin to advise his government on legal aspects of Kemani II. Rankin concluded in January 1993 that the government would be liable for the $500 million Alcan has so far spent on the project.

The Cheslatta and another Carrier Nation are calling for a federal-provincial review.