Thread by @Lidsville

THIS IS TODAY. 5 pm. Hear from the Chief of the First Nation fighting #SiteC in BC Supreme Court, Chief Roland Willson of West Moberly FN @dunnezaman, as well as geotechnical expert on #SiteC's unsafety & more. Please join! #bcpoli #Covid19BC #cdnpoli #theDamTruth #UNDRIP

https://twitter.com/sitecsummit/status/1384375837651136512

@dunnezaman ..I'll try to live tweet parts of this webinar. If you would like to donate to West Moberly's court challenge to the #SiteC dam, the link is here.

https://twitter.com/RAVENtrust/status/1379534190908108803

#bcpoli

@dunnezaman ..Up first is Chief Roland Willson @dunnezaman of West Moberly First Nations.

@dunnezaman .."We are not opposed to the creation of energy. We are opposed to the destruction of the valley for power that is not needed." It's unsafe, unnecessary and unlawful, a violation of Treaty Rights. The valley is more valuable as is than destroyed for an unneeded project #SiteC

..Chief Willson @dunnezaman talking about the methylmercury poisoning created by the dams on the Peace River - the orange shows the range of the mercury-poisoned fish up the rivers around Williston Lake (which is the WAC Bennett Dam reservoir, upstream of Site C)

..Chief Willson @dunnezaman now talking about the way the dam reservoirs etc. have fragmented the caribou herds until they're nearly extirpated today (and of course the NDP reneged on its promise to put in a Species at Risk Act, looking at you @georgeheyman #bcpoli #SiteC

..First Nations have taken it upon themselves to institute a maternal caribou breeding and penning program, because the BC govt failed to do anything to prevent extirpation. All of this is ongoing impacts from the WAC Bennett dam (1968). Then Peace Canyon dam, ~1980, now #SiteC

..NE BC doesn't just have to deal with the impacts of the 3 dams, but also most of BC's fracking, and massive forestry. Massive industrial impacts of all kinds. There's so much damage already; the small piece of the Peace River left by Site C is all that's left! Don't destroy it.

First Nations have not been consulted on the cumulative impacts of all this development, most of which violate Treaty 8. Map of impacts: Animation year by year. It's staggering. West Moberly FN in the centre of this. #SiteC

.."They call it progress." But as with lung cancer, not all progress is good. BC operates by resource extraction; the net result is the mess we're in up here. The argument that #SiteC is needed? It's been proven it's not necessary. And it's unsafe. Unjustified treaty infringement

..Next up @kainagata. Looking to help stop the destruction of the last untouched part of the Peace Valley, of the culture and history of the people in the territory, & also this dam's attack on democracy. The West Moberly FN court case is one of our last options to stop #SiteC

..Why is the govt's conduct with the #SiteC dam an attack on democracy? Secrecy, SNC-Lavalin's connection to organized crime, massive no-bid direct award contracts. It's a vehicle to take money from BC Hydro ratepayers and put it into the hands of unscrupulous actors like SNC..

..Whistleblowers/anon sources are coming forward to talk about irregularities at #SiteC, quietly because they fear for their safety...

..#SiteC has also sucked all the money that would have gone to distributed energy projects around the province. We know cartels and monopolies are bad..look at cell co's. This is bad for democracy. We need to get away from megadam megaprojects & put it back into local projects...

..#SiteC is a power centre - not just electricity but the wrong kind of power. Kai urges people to donate to RavenTrust's fundraising effort for legal funds for West Moberly First Nations. (link in thread) #bcpoli

..Kai: we need to hold every politician who brought us here accountable. We have 3.5 years to build an effort to hold those accountable who dragged us into this. #SiteC #bcpoli

..Here's the link to donate to West Moberly First Nations' court challenge to #SiteC #bcpoli raventrust.com/campaigns/site…

..Next up, expert hydrologist Gilles Wendling, talking about #SiteC, dams and groundwater. He has done work for West Moberly and Prophet River First Nations

..#SiteC is about the size of Niagara Falls, and it will flood and submerge over 82 km of the Peace River valley behind it. We know they're trying to nail it to the site with 125 piles, 2.5m dia pillars, 30+m under the ground under the dam ($$$$$$$$$$$$)

..Gilles Wendling: when we analysed the project we were surprised by how little work the BC govt had done on groundwater. Most of the studies were on bank stability. The level will rise 50m, banks will lose stability & slide. Reservoir length...

..Gilles saying he was surprised by how many Qs remained and the low level of research on the geology. When you build a dam, with a high reservoir, you don't stop the water from flowing into the groundwater. You must understand groundwater before/after construction

.. Hydrologist Gilles Wendling: "I never found the groundwater maps when we were going through the BC Hydro binders. And I never found them. Because they were never created." #SiteC #bcpoli

..Wendling: We don't know the geometry of the valleys along the Peace River. There are only 3 wells near #SiteC so when we surveyed in 2016 we could not determine in which direction groundwater would move... !!! #bcpoli

Orange are fracking sites. Blue is water wells. All by #SiteC. And there are natural faults in the area too

.."olympic swimming pools of liquid fracking waste disposed of".. These wells typically 1.5-2km deep. Yellow is gas, blue is water, green a combo

That's 111 olympic swimming pools of liquid fracking waste disposed of" in the Peace River Valley. But industry doesn't have to monitor it and there are lots of unknowns about the nature of the liquid waste disposed at that depth - and this is close to #Sitec.

..Gilles Wendling went to NRCan a few days ago to research earthquakes near #SiteC. 100 earthquakes recorded near #SiteC. As some of you know, my group Commons BC has maps showing far more seismic activity than this - we use more data sources than NRCan, including industry info

..Gilles Wendling, hydrologist: so many irreversible changes we are inflicting, and what is their cumulative effect? The fact is, we don't know. We don't know where groundwater is going to move, and under how much pressure. BC is just following a wait and see attitude. (!) #SiteC

.. Gilles Wendling now talking about the massive landslide 1km from #SiteC at Old Fort. If we look 140 years down the road, 7 generations - what will the impacts on groundwater be? The fact is we don't know. Those unknowns could be costly/impossible to fix. /end

.. Now Q&A: main question is why does methylmercury accumulate in hydro reservoirs? It's a natural product of vegetation, which when drowned releases into the water and bioaccumulates in fish. Bull trout are at the top of the food chain & are a traditional food source...

Mercury-contaminated fish will swim upstream from the #SiteC reservoir to Moberly Lake, introducing methylmercury into Moberly Lake and its food chain. Fish in the lake are a food source for local people. #SiteC #bcpoli

Thanks for following everyone! There were 300 attendees for the #SiteC presentation, including from across Canada and as far away as the Netherlands, where it's 3 am! I will append a link to the video of this presentation to this thread when it becomes available. //