Rotary
CROSSWORD............ 7 SWEET SOUNDS BUSINESS................. 8 Jazz festival returns to SPORTS.................... 9 Townsite venues CULTURE................. 11 PAGE 11 COMMUNITY...........14 CLASSIFIEDS...........15 FAIR FOCUS
Artists highlight upcycling and sustainability PAGE 12
Club of Powell River
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PRPEAK.COM
Thursday.April 3.2025
Vol.30 No.24
Canada Post Agreement 40069240
Lake levels a concern Energy Democracy for BC wants to ensure water is high enough for navigation and spawning fish PAUL GALINSKI reporter@prpeak.com
A qathet-based organization has concerns about water management on Powell and Lois lakes, which both have hydroelectric dams operated by Evolugen by Brookfield Renewable. Al Drummond, a director with Energy Democracy for British Columbia (ED4BC), said the organization has three issues it is concerned about. One is management of water levels in Powell Lake and Lois Lake, the second issue is the water licences that Evolugen has on these bodies of water, and the third is the export of power from the local dams. Regarding water levels, Drummond said in the fall, water levels in the lakes drop considerably. People with fee simple land with homes on them at Powell Lake have trouble accessing their cabins, and there are also a number of float cabins impacted by this, according to Drummond.
“There are two people who have complained to Transport Canada about navigational issues,” said Drummond. “The legislation is specific. No entity can de-water a water source to prevent people from navigating, and that’s for all sizes of vessels. “What happens on Powell Lake in particular is the water levels drop so drastically that people cannot access their land cabins. Now for float cabins, they are still kind of floating, but they do get issues with snags in the low water. People can’t dock their boats and get to their domiciles.” Drummond said ED4BC has followed up with a letter to Transport Canada asking what it is going to do, and will the legislation be enforced? “Transport Canada was on the lake last summer and they worked with the float cabin association to ensure people made applications to do with their breakwaters, the siting of their float homes, and whether they would be a navigational issue,” said Drummond. “So, this falls into the fact that there is a navigational issue, and how are they going to deal with that? Are they going to enforce it?” Drummond said he believes Transport Canada is going to have a tough time saying it can’t do anything about the navigational issues when it was made very clear last summer that the government department wants »2
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CONSIDERABLE DROP: An Energy Democracy for British Columbia director has expressed concern about lake levels in Powell and Lois lakes, citing navigational and fish spawning problems resulting from dam water consumption in the early fall. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
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