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A B.C. conservation organization is calling on the province to complete a full environmental review before moving ahead with a proposed wind energy project.
The BC Wildlife Federation said the K2 Wind Energy Project proposed in the Pennask Watershed carries significant risk of metal leaching and acid rock drainage, which could damage a unique rainbow trout population used to stock B.C. lakes.
“It is essential that test excavations and a full environmental review be conducted before this project breaks ground,” BCWF executive director Jesse Zeman said in a media release.
“A study commissioned by a local fish and game club warned that the excavation carried significant risk to habitat in the watershed and precious trout populations.”
Zeman pointed to the history in the area as evidence of what could go wrong.
In the late 1980s, the wildlife federation said Highway 97C Coquihalla Connector construction required a small amount of rock to be excavated near a tributary stream that drained into fish-bearing Pennask Creek and Pennask Lake.
"Rock cuts on the north and south sides of the highway released acid rock drainage and elevated metal leaching," the wildlife federation said.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Environment Canada, and the provincial Ministry of Environment participated in field investigations at and below the rock cuts.
BCWF said 10 charges under Canada’s Fisheries Act were laid against MoT as the result of these investigations. In 2005, MoT pleaded guilty to two charges.
The BC government announced in early December of last year that it had selected nine proposed wind energy projects following its earlier call for power-generation projects.
One of the selected projects is the K2 Wind Power project which is proposed to be built on Westbank First Nation land on Pennask Mountain. The province says it is exempting the project and all future wind projects from environmental assessments.
Westbank First Nation and developer Innergex Renewable Energy said in a press release at the time that the proposed project will be able to power approximately 50,000 homes, with commercial operations expected to begin in 2031.
