Projects go ahead despite unknown risk, biologist warns

B.C. government approves independent wind, hydro power developments, then monitors for environmental problems after construction

By Larry Pynn, Vancouver Sun – May 8, 2010, p. A16

The B.C. government is approving independent hydro and wind power projects without knowing their impact on the environment, including species at risk, a meeting of biologists was told Thursday.

The province is taking an adaptive-management approach, which means that projects continue to be monitored for environmental problems post-construction and mitigation measures implemented as considered necessary.

Elke Wind, a consulting biologist from Nanaimo, expressed concern about the impact of run-of-river hydro projects on threatened stream-dwelling amphibians in the absence of adequate scientific information.

“When I’m working with clients … I really try to emphasize that they treat each development project like it’s an experiment,” she told more than 250 people attending the annual conference of the Association of Professional Biologists of B.C.

“That’s the only way we can start to learn from these various development projects and figure out whether mitigation is working and what the potential impacts are.”

Charlie Palmer, an ecologist with Vancouver-based Hemmera environmental consultants, has worked on development of B.C.’s first and only commercial operating wind farm at Bear Mountain near Dawson Creek.

He acknowledged “we don’t really know an awful lot” about the impact of wind farms in B.C.

He supported adaptive management because it addresses the environmental uncertainty of such projects and prevents companies from having to spend money on mitigation measures that might not be necessary. In the case of wind farms, mitigation could include slowing down the turbine rotation or even shutting it off during times when birds or bats are particularly vulnerable.

Siting of farms to reduce conflict with wildlife is another form of mitigation done at the outset of the project, he said.

Initial results at Bear Mountain show an average of about two birds/bats die annually per turbine (there are 34 turbines), although further studies are continuing, especially over the impact on resident bats. He noted that recovering carcasses is a challenge in the wooded area around the wind farm.

B.C. has three species of amphibians that breed in mountain streams—coastal tailed frog, Rocky Mountain tailed frog and Pacific giant salamander. All are officially considered at risk and all are sensitive to changes in stream temperature and volume and structure, oxygen levels, siltation and loss of habitat.

Wind said the coastal tailed frog can live more than 20 years and takes three to four years to metamorphose, a time when tadpoles attach themselves with sucker mouths to rocks in fast-flowing streams.

Little is known about the tailed frog in the upper reaches of rivers where run-of-river hydro projects temporarily divert water to create electricity, or about how the alteration of flows and related infrastructure might harm the species as it migrates along the stream.

Since tailed frogs tend to be found in smaller river basins of 0.2 to 10 square kilometres, it’s possible that a diversion project on a larger stream might actually create habitat. “We really don’t know what’s going on in these systems,” she said.

Wind said the consultants hired by run-of-river projects may be trained, say, in fish, but often lack the skills necessary when surveying for frogs during the environmental assessment process. Sampling can also be difficult at deeper water levels and some high-elevation habitats are simply inaccessible to biologists to conduct surveys.

“I have a lot of concern … about the knowledge and skill level of the people out there actually collecting the data. I’ve had instances where I’ve gone in and I’m finding tailed frogs in streams where the biologists for the companies haven’t found them.”

Run-of-river projects also raise concerns over loss or fragmentation of habitat, nonnative species introduction, poaching due to increased access to wilderness areas, water quality and quantity.

“The main concern with a lot of the public is the cumulative impacts of all these potential run-of-river projects and disturbance to pristine watersheds,” Wind said.

The conference heard that the province’s environmental assessment process (which ultimately reports to two cabinet ministers for the final decision) has only ever rejected one development application—expansion of Kemess mine in northern B.C. in 2007—although in some cases proponents back out voluntarily for a variety of reasons, including an inability to meet environmental standards.