Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Opposition moves on Cheakamus water use plan

Deadline passes for public comment on B.C. Hydro proposal that would see Daisy Lake Dam outflows decreased by up to 80 per cent

The public comment period on a proposed water use plan for the Cheakamus River closed on Tuesday, Sept. 21, but not before a group of motivated anglers, recreational boaters and other concerned citizens took the opportunity to make their point.

According to Dave Brown of the Whistler Angling Club, he knows of up to 40 other people who submitted letters that were opposed to the water use plan, which would see B.C. Hydro reduce outflow from the Daisy Lake Dam into the Cheakamus River by up to 80 per cent from April to October. Brown says that would severely affect everything downstream of the dam, from fish populations to recreational opportunities.

"I’m encouraged by the number of letters we’ve seen so far, and we’re still encouraging people to write letters even though the deadline is past," said Brown.

The letters are now in the hands of Pieter Bekker, the Deputy Comptroller for Water Rights and Land and Water B.C., who will consider the input before making a decision. He does not yet know how many letters he has received or what percentage is for or against the B.C. Hydro plan, but he says it’s less than a hundred letters at this point.

"We review them and we look to see if there is new information, or new issues that we weren’t aware of and that we need to consider before issuing a decision," said Bekker. "And if there are new issues raised and if there is information that we feel we need to have before making a decision, we need to go out and get that."

Bekker says opinions don’t matter at this point, and only facts are relevant to the process.

The source of the letters will be considered, especially if the source has a direct stake in the decision as an owner of a riparian area or the holder of a valid or pending water license.

Guiding companies that take anglers and boaters on the water may have some weight in the process if they have tenures to use the Cheakamus River.

The timeframe for a decision will depend on whether Land and Water B.C. feels they have enough information to make a decision. "The sooner, the better, but the decision may be that we need more information to make a decision," said Bekker.

If the information is in order, he added, a decision could be made within months.

According to B.C. Hydro, their controversial water use plan is not set in stone, but will be open to changes and modifications.

"I want to emphasize that within the plan itself there is a monitoring program that identifies ongoing studies that may be necessary… if it is approved by the comptroller and implemented, we know there will be a monitoring program in place as well as a review period," said Charlotte Benister, the public relations co-ordinator for B.C. Hydro.

"Basically we know that we’re not perfect, that the science isn’t perfect and that we didn’t have time to draw up all the necessary studies, so there will be studies to determine if there is an impact on the fish and recreation… and more discussions as part of the review period."

B.C. Hydro’s says that power generation would "increase significantly" if their plan is approved. The generation facility in the Squamish Valley, which is connected to Daisy Lake through an underground tunnel, currently generations 590 Gigawatt hours of electricity a year, about 1.5 per cent of B.C. Hydro’s total power generation.

In 1997, a year after a water use planning process was proposed for the Cheakamus River, the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans placed a flow order on the Daisy Lake Dam that specified that 45 per cent of all the inflow into Daisy Lake would be released back into the Cheakamus River. The flow order was in response to the discovery that B.C. Hydro had been sending too much water to their generation facilities in past decades, violating their own water license.

The Cheakamus Water Use Plan got underway in 1999 and stakeholders – including anglers, conservationists, representatives for recreational users, B.C. Hydro and the DFO – met for the next two years to try and reach a consensus over how much water should be released back into the river.

"Unfortunately the Cheakamus was one of the few rivers where we did not reach a consensus agreement, and under the circumstances B.C. Hydro was required to put something forward, we had to have a plan for operations," said Benister.

Brown, one of the stakeholders who sat in on the water use plan discussions, disagrees with B.C. Hydro’s assessment.

"We came up with our own alternative (to B.C. Hydro’s plan) that had the support of 90 per cent of the group, and if that’s not a majority, or a majority consensus, then I don’t know what is," he said.

The alternative was to keep the DFO’s order in place, ensuring that 45 per cent of the flow into Daisy Lake through the Cheakamus system would be put back into the Cheakamus River.

"You’re never going to get everybody on-side. B.C. Hydro opposed because they wanted to have a lower flow regime – one that would have a more severe impact not only on salmon, but on the steelhead, the trout, the dolly (varden), the eagles, the bears – to generate the most power dollars," he said.

"(Consensus) was never going to be possible and I think we knew that right off the bat, but we still went through two years of meetings to find out the obvious."

Brown says the main concern with opponents of the plan is that B.C. Hydro’s minimum flow requirements are too low and there’s not enough monitoring in place to indicate to B.C. Hydro and the provincial government if there is a problem.

Under the current 45 per cent regime, daily outflows from the Daisy Lake Dam vary between 30 and 45 cubic metres per second during the spring and summer months. B.C. Hydro is suggesting a new minimum of 7 cu.m/s from April to Octover and 3 cu.m/s from November to March.

Brown feels that drop in water will impact fish spawning and recreation on the river, as well as the local guiding industry built on angling, eagle tours and whitewater kayaking and rafting in the river system.