Big Dams and a Big Fracking Problem in B.C.
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- Published on Thursday, 18 August 2016 10:15
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Fracking, Earthquakes and Hydro Dams? Don’t Worry, We Have an Understanding
Efforts by BC Hydro to ban potentially destructive natural gas company fracking operations in the vicinity of its biggest dams fall well short of what an Alberta hydro provider has achieved, raising questions about why British Columbia isn’t doing more to protect public safety.
Documents obtained through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives show that BC Hydro officials have feared for years that fracking-induced earthquakes could damage its dams and reservoirs.
Senior dam safety officials with the public hydro utility even worried for a time that natural gas companies could drill and frack for gas directly below their Peace River dams, which would kill hundreds if not thousands of people should they fail. Read more.
Big Dams and a Big Fracking Problem in B.C.’s Energy-rich Peace River Region
Senior BC Hydro officials have quietly feared for years that earthquakes triggered by natural gas industry fracking operations could damage its Peace River dams, putting hundreds if not thousands of people at risk should the dams fail.
Yet the Crown corporation has said nothing publicly about its concerns, opting instead to negotiate behind the scenes with the provincial energy industry regulator, the BC Oil and Gas Commission (OGC).
To date, those discussions have resulted in only modest “understandings” between the hydro provider and the OGC that would see a halt in the issuance of any new “subsurface rights” allowing companies to drill and frack for natural gas within five kilometres of the Peace River’s two existing dams or an approved third dam on the river, the controversial $9-billion Site C project. Companies already holding such rights, however, would not be subject to the ban. Read more.
Grizzly Group Takes Aim at Trophy Hunting, Sets Sights on Provincial Election Candidates
Above the stone fireplace in the comfortable Saanich home, photos of grizzly bears are pinned in a casual collage.
Cubs are shown frolicking in the grass,
a curious bear stands on his hind legs looking through a camera lens and,
jarringly, at the top, is a massive grizzly
lying lifeless in the grass, eyes closed,
claws digging into the dirt, as two
jubilant hunters smile into the camera.
The photo, typical of those found in hunting magazines that promote the chance to travel to Super, Natural B.C. to kill grizzles, provokes a visceral response among hunt opponents and a newly-formed group wants to harness that gut reaction. Read more.
Increased Oil Tankers, Coal Exports a Threat to B.C.’s Struggling Resident Killer Whale Populations
Residents of the Salish Sea region spanning B.C. and Washington State were horrified recently at a photograph taken of a Southern Resident killer whale that appeared undernourished, with ribs visibly protruding from his side.
That idea that local killer whales might be starving is central to new research by the Raincoast Conservation Foundation that found killer whales in southern B.C. are severely affected by depleted salmon runs and shipping vessel disturbance.
“The lower Fraser River is one of the most important Chinook salmon runs and watersheds for Southern Resident killer whales,” Raincoast biologist Misty MacDuffee told us.r0
