After the floods, how BC will restore a diverted river

A British Columbia regional district and three neighboring First Nations agreed to work together to restore a river that has been diverted for the past 70 years to generate hydroelectric power for the province’s aluminum smelter and power grid.

The Bulkley-Nechako Regional District and First Nations Nadleh Whuten, Saik’uz and Stellat’en formalized their partnership to improve the health of the Nechako River in a memorandum of understanding signed this fall.

The deal comes as two of the nations are also awaiting a court ruling on a petition first filed in 2011 seeking an order that would require restoration of Nechako and its fisheries. The hearings began in the fall of 2019 and ended last spring.

The Nechako, one of the main tributaries of the Fraser River, runs through the town of Vanderhoof in central BC.

The river’s flows are regulated by a 1987 agreement between the federal and provincial governments and Rio Tinto Alcan, the mining giant’s aluminum division. The company periodically releases water from the Kenney Dam reservoir, which was completed in the 1950s, to provide hydroelectric power to its aluminum smelter in Kitimat. It has also sold power to the province since 1978.

Vanderhoof Mayor Gerry Thiessen, who is also chairman of the regional district board of directors, said the river disruption has contributed to the degradation of salmon habitat, major ice jams and river bank erosion in community.

Last fall, the city saw “water flowing in areas that had never run before at the time,” Thiessen said, though the highest levels of government and the company told him all was well.

The memorandum states that restoring the health of the Nechako River requires the 1987 agreement to be superseded. Decisions about how the river is managed must be made locally and the river must better resemble how it would have flowed naturally, Thiessen said.

“Residents here, both non-indigenous and First Nations, have always been here,” the mayor said in an interview. “We care about our environment and when we find out that the people of Victoria are making a decision about the flow of the river, or in the case of the company, it is someone from Montreal, that just doesn’t work.”

Stellat’en boss Robert Michell said he has noticed a recent shift in Rio Tinto’s focus in conversations about how the river’s flow is managed.

First Nations, regional district in #BC working together to restore the diverted river. #hydroelectricity

“They have always been very firm in their position that they have a right to that river, no one else has it, and they would make it run the way they see fit. That has changed,” Michell said in an interview. “They have come to the table, they have had negotiators, we have had their CEO participate in some of the discussions.”

Thiessen said he believed he was “seeing some changes in the industry, some changes in government, but he’s not really sure where exactly they will take us.”

Rio Tinto said in a statement that it “actively supports efforts to improve the health of the Nechako River” and is committed to working with Nechako First Nations, the government and other stakeholders to review the management of the reservoir.

“We believe that the governance of flows in the Nechako River should be an inclusive process that evolves over time,” the company said. “The management of reservoirs is a complex matter in which a number of interests must be considered and balanced, from ensuring a flow beneficial to (the river) health, to managing floods for communities and supplying the necessary energy in the region”.

A website created by the company shows the level of the water in the reservoir each day and the speed at which the river flows through the Vanderhoof. It also provides information on how the river is managed during the different stages of the salmon spawning cycle.

Thiessen said he remembers in the 1950s when the Kenney Dam reservoir was first filled and the Nechako River bed was rockier, providing shelter for salmon and sturgeon eggs and fry. Now, he said, the river bed is silty and hard, making it easier for predators to catch juvenile fish.

The sediment has raised the river bed, Thiessen said, and its 200-year floodplain includes much of the Vanderhoof, affecting where the city can develop and grow.

The Ministry of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation said in a statement that it is aware of and supports the relationship between the three nations and the regional district established in the memorandum of understanding. The ministry did not respond to questions about the river’s management and said the matter is in court.

This Canadian Press report was first published on November 28, 2021.

Reference-www.nationalobserver.com

Leave a Comment