Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #MuskratFalls
Most recents (10)
..I'm going to semi-livetweet this #SiteC webinar. Chief Roland Willson of West Moberly First Nations @dunnezaman is speaking first. Site C will drown the last portion of valley on the Peace River - everything else has been submerged by previous dams... #bcpoli 
@dunnezaman ..Treaty 8 promised would be "no forced interference" in hunting and fishing rights - Chief Willson is showing a map animation showing the sheer quantity of imposed dev't in their region. This is "forced interference" - and #SiteC is unnecessary interference...
Just attended an excellent #SiteC webinar put on by the N. American Megadam Resistance Alliance (NAMRA, @resistmegadams) - "Canada's Sinking Site C Dam" with brilliant presentations by @sarahcox_bc @candacebatycki @Norm_Farrell. Watch it here: facebook.com/resistmegadams… #bcpoli
@resistmegadams @sarahcox_bc @candacebatycki @Norm_Farrell ..Here's a thread by @resistmegadams on the #SiteC webinar and I'm going to add some highlights in a bit:
@resistmegadams @sarahcox_bc @candacebatycki @Norm_Farrell ..Some highlights from today's international Zoom event on #SiteC: @sarahcox_bc noting the difference between the US & Canada/BC in terms of access to information: the US supplies info immediately; BC govt can take many months, a year, sometimes refuse entirely. #bcpoli #cdnpoli
Damning new story by @BenParfittCCPA. Wonder if NDP regret their move. "The #SiteC Dam’s Radical, Risky Makeover - BC Hydro says it has just discovered new, costly problems for the megaproject. In fact, engineers have known about them for decades." #bcpoli thetyee.ca/Analysis/2020/…
@BenParfittCCPA ..So many notable things in this story. Parfitt got a top engineer with serious qualifications in rock mechanics, hydro AND fracking to go on the record and raise doubts about #SiteC's safety & buildability. Anthony Ingraffea, professor emeritus of civil engineering at Cornell
@BenParfittCCPA ..And then Parfitt's article has former CEO of BC Hydro Marc Eliesen saying that the revelations of foundational problems at #SiteC cry out for “an immediate halt” to all work at the project and a sober assessment of whether or not it’s in the public interest to continue" #bcpoli
There's been surprisingly little discussion of the key way this #SiteC mess was rammed through: by the BC govt kneecapping BC's energy regulator, the BCUC @BCUtilitiesCom. Are we so jaded about corruption that this is no big deal? Campbell did it. @jjhorgan perpetuated it #bcpoli
@BCUtilitiesCom @jjhorgan ..This isn't even what we call 'regulatory capture,' which is when powerful interests capture govt's regulatory processes (like forestry in BC, or BC Oil+Gas Commission). This is arguably worse; just take the existing regulator's powers away full stop. How? Clean Energy Act, 2010
@BCUtilitiesCom @jjhorgan ..And get this: all 3 of Canada's current mega-dam projects are scandal-ridden (both #MuskratFalls & Manitoba's Keeyask have already called public inquiries), & ALL THREE provinces deliberately removed regulatory oversight to ram these projects through.
OVERSIGHT NOW.
#bcpoli
OVERSIGHT NOW.
#bcpoli
In 5 minutes, @sarahcox_bc talking about the #SiteC fiasco on Co-Op Radio #bcpoli
Listen online here coopradio.org/content/listen
Listen online here coopradio.org/content/listen
@sarahcox_bc .."Expert Harvey Elwin said he had never seen as much secrecy around a dam project in his 50 years of working on dams around the world - including the Three Gorges Dam in China - as he had seen around the #SiteC dam." What does that signal to British Columbians? #bcpoli
@sarahcox_bc Other tidbits from @sarahcox_bc radio interview: If the deadline for the #SiteC river diversion is missed this Sept, that's another $billion down the drain on top of all the other overruns. The diversion tunnels may be finished, but other elements needed for the diversion aren't.
This is what Vern Ruskin, the experienced BC Hydro dam engineer who spoke against #SiteC at the 2017 BCUC review, was warning about: a landslide wave. He said the weak banks of #SiteC's reservoir could slide, creating a wave that could overtop/collapse the earthfill dam. #bcpoli
..and here's ABC News' much better video of the same landslide and resulting wave in Myanmar. It's a good demonstration of just how much force these collapses could place on an earthfill dam built on unstable substrate. Like at #SiteC. #bcpoli
A famous example of a landslide into a reservoir creating a wave that overtopped the dam is the Vajont Dam failure in 1963, N. of Venice, Italy. It happened when the reservoir was first being filled, creating a steep 820-foot high wave. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vajont_Dam #SiteC
I'm trying to livetweet this webinar but it's going so fast I don't want to miss anything. Point is to inform the US that Canadian hydroelectricity is dirty (methylmercury/enviro devastation), rights-violating, environmentally racist & shouldn't be classed as green #SiteC #bcpoli
..A growing number of figures in Canada are speaking out about the extreme impacts on Indigenous peoples, downstream communities and climate from hydro dams. Here Senator Mary Jane McCallum, & slide from Denise Cole of @protectlabrador #bcpoli #SiteC #MuskratFalls @resistmegadams
@protectlabrador @resistmegadams ..As if that's not bad enough, the group wanting to build transmission lines to move Hydro Quebec's dirty Canadian hydroelectricity to New York is BLACKSTONE, built out of remains of Lehman Bros, whose board features Brian Mulroney. #NoDamWay #TheDamTruth @resistmegadams #cdnpoli
This dam conference on hydro-impacted communities starts today! It's actually named "Ki Ta Ski Naw" or 'rise up' in Cree. For those interested in following along, I think hashtags will be #hydroimpacted #hydrojustice & I'll also try to use #SiteC #bcpoli hydroimpacted.ca/conference-age…
Looking forward to the first panel which will be moderated by BC journalist @sarahcox_bc. Opening welcome now. Starting to regain feeling in my face from the walk here, hi Winnipeg!
We're in Treaty 1 territory for the #hydroimpacted conference. Welcome by local elder Dave Scott in Cree language. Speaking now about the treaty relationship, its history, the 'doctine of discovery', Trudeau's White Paper & ongoing devolution process.. cc #SiteC #treaty8
Highly irregular accounting practices at BC Hydro continue. Meanwhile in a further irregularity, BC Auditor-General Carol Bellringer has just removed a "qualification" that denotes that Hydro's financial reports don't adhere to standard accounting practice. THREAD. #bcpoli #SiteC
Aud-Gen Bellringer has just removed this "qualification" or warning from BC Hydro's 2018/19 financials, based on a promise from NDP Govt to return BC Hydro to proper accounting practices & BCUC oversight in 2021. Why? And where is media on this? bcpoli
I may have missed media reports on these latest wild west BC Hydro/BC govt shenanigans, but Google only returns 1 media hit on this, in Indo-Canadian Voice:
voiceonline.com/b-c-government…
Meanwhile, this a.m. in back channels there's a flood of outrage amongst financial experts #bcpoli
voiceonline.com/b-c-government…
Meanwhile, this a.m. in back channels there's a flood of outrage amongst financial experts #bcpoli
Remember how people were warning about the housing crisis in 2011 & everyone mostly ignored it? I guess it's the default of people, & media, to assume that anyone issuing warnings is exaggerating & advancing some agenda of their own. Well, it's happening again with #SiteC #bcpoli
So this is not just a challenge to media, but an offer - in 5 years, you could be the one who can credibly say 'I warned you'. The cost of this unnecessary project will exceed $20 billion. #SiteC is geotechnically unstable & its treaty violation will bring consequences. #bcpoli
The #SiteC dam is not a done deal & BCers have undone many deals before. Whatever else you may hear, they're trying to build it on some of the most unstable ground in BC & it's creating havoc on site. The other 2 dams on the Peace River are in the Rockies; Site C is on sludge.
