Regional District Okanagan Similkameen Directors discussed the Fortis Similkameen dam proposal during committee meetings on August 7.
Princeton Director Frank Armitage, West Bench Director Michael Brydon and Princeton rural Director Brad Hope insisted the board meet regularly with Fortis officials in order to be kept up to date with respect to the company’s intentions with the dam proposal.
“We need to know where we’re at, and where we intend to go,” said Armitage. He insisted the board, as representatives of the region, had a need to be fully informed about the project.
“We should be talking to Fortis about this on a regular basis,” he said, “we need to get our homework done, and, let’s talk about revenue sharing, too.”
Brydon agreed, noting the dam proposal was being considered by private shareholders and “their rationale”. He questioned the apparent policy of the provincial government to get out of the dam building business, describing the situation as one where the province, providing regulatory control, should be responsible for doing a cost benefit analysis for the residents of B.C.
“Let me hear from Fortis, but let me also hear from the Governement of British Columbia, that they’re on the job. I don’t want to hear, ‘ oh, we’re doing budget cuts, we haven’t looked at it, we don’t have staff, we havent’ had time to look at what the long term consequences are.”
Director Hope expressed his concerns regarding regulatory control, alluding to the recent Imperial Metals dam breech at its Mount Polley Mine near Williams Lake.
“As board directors, we need to know as much as we can about a project like this,” he added. “I’ve been trying for three years to find out from Fortis where the revenue was going tobe generated from, and this last meeting was virtually the first time that was mentioned.”
Board Chair Mark Pendergraft advised the board of Fortis’ intention to speak to the issue in the coming weeks. He recommended the board wait until that time before requiring an official status update on the project.
Fortis Inc. proposes to build a 165 metre high dam roughly 15 kilometres southwest of Princeton on the Similkameen River. The dam would provide 154,000 acre feet of water storage in a reservoir 20 kilometres long. Fortis claims the dam will benefit the Similkameen valley by providing flood mitigation and increased water flows during late summer months.