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Hydro power project proposed at Hot Springs Cove

$7 million facility would decrease First Nation’s diesel dependency.
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Hydrologist Gabe Sentlinger, left, and Hesquiaht member Leslie Mickey assess stream flows on Ahtaapq Creek. The community of Hot Springs Cove could soon have hydro power.

The Hesquiaht First Nation is putting a hydro power project together to decrease Hot Spring Cove’s dependence on diesel fuel.

“The village of Hot Springs Cove has long been dependent on diesel generation for electricity…The diesel emissions are 580 tonnes annually, on average. This will reduce it by 67 per cent,” said John Ebell of Barkley Project Group, a consulting organization working with Hesquiaht on the project.

“It’s a financial burden to the Hesquiaht First Nation because it obviously costs a lot of money to buy that diesel and it’s also an environmental risk to the region. There’s many barge-loads of diesel a year that are being transported from Tofino to Hot Springs Cove.”

Ebell said the cost to install the new, 250 kilowatt, hydro facility would be in the neighbourhood of $7 million.

The federal government is expected to handle the lion’s share of the bill along with funding from the province.

“This is consistent with the federal government’s international commitments towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions and climate change impacts,” he said.

Hesquiaht Chief Councillor Richard Lucas told the Westerly the switch to hydro would save the First Nation “thousands of dollars” every year, bring a positive environmental impact by cutting down on the amount of diesel and lubricants being shipped to the remote island community and provide more reliable power.

“We transport the diesel from Tofino on the barge and, a lot of times, they can’t make it in because of the weather,” he said adding the hydro project has “been a long time coming.”

“We’re looking into other projects, such as solar, to help us out,” he said.

He said the diesel generator creates noise pollution to both the village’s residents and visitors to Maquinna Marine Provincial Park and added the hydro project would create roughly 20 short-term jobs while it’s being built and roughly five long-term jobs once it’s in place.

The community has been seeking out alternative energy sources to diesel for roughly 30 years and a 1988 feasibility assessment identified the Cove’s Ahtaapq Creek as a viable hydro energy source, according to Ebell.

Before construction can begin though, an adjustment is needed to the Maquinna Protected Area that would allow 17 poles to be installed along a roughly 1.7 kilometre stretch of road that’s currently designated for vehicle traffic only, with any utilities, like power or water lines, prohibited.

“We can’t actually build the hydro power project, we can’t start it, until we actually have a Park Boundary Adjustment that will allow for those utilities through the Maquinna Protected Area,” Ebell said.

Details of the adjustment can be found at BC Parks’ website—www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/PBAProcess— and Hesquiaht leaders will host an open house alongside BC Parks staff at the Tofino Botanical Gardens on June 27 from 4-7 p.m. to explain the proposed hydro project and collect feedback.

Ebell expressed confidence that the project would move through the public process smoothly.

“We’re expecting that Park Boundary Adjustment will be completed by the spring of 2018,” he said.

“Once that’s done, we can start construction and construction will take place over about a year-and-a half…We should have an operating hydro power project by the fall of 2019.”



Andrew Bailey

About the Author: Andrew Bailey

I arrived at the Westerly News as a reporter and photographer in January 2012.
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