More turbulence for Wind Farm projects

While the famous North coast winds continue to blow, the opportunity to harness them for electrical purposes seems to be in a holding pattern.

Last week one of our local projects the Mount Hays wind farm was put on hold for a year or so at least, due to the inability of the project developers to secure turbines for the site to be built on Mount Hays.

This week, Katabatic Power postponed their planned public open house scheduled for Prince Rupert today (June 11), which was to discuss and review many of the plans for the development of their other wind project on the North Coast the Banks Island wind farm.

In addition to the postponement of the open house, the required thirty days of public comment has also been suspended, it had gotten under way on June 4th and was set to continue until July 4th, all part of the process that North Coast Wind Energy Corp. was involved in to move their project forward.

Today's open house was to have in attendance both representatives of the company and officials from The B.C. Environmental Assessment Agency, where the terms of refernce for the project would be discussed.

There are now apparently a number of changes to be made to those 80 pages of terms, which no doubt contributed to the cancellation of the planned public session today.

No make up date has been set as of yet to provide a public forum for those that have questions or are interested in the six billion dollar project that is planned for the coastal areas of the North Coast.

With all these high profile supply problems and adminstrative delays, many locals may soon begin to question if we'll ever see the much touted windmills on the mountain or out on Banks Island.

The Daily News had some background on the cancellation in Tuesday's paper.

Wind farm open house session on hold for now
The Daily News
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Page three

The public will have to wait a little longer before getting to blow their horns about what will and will not be studied as part of the environmental assessment for the proposed Banks Island wind farm.

The B.C. Environmental Assessment Agency and representatives from North Coast Wind Energy Corp. were set to be at the Coast Hotel from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday to discuss the proposed terms of reference - but the session has been postponed.

The company sent out a press release Monday afternoon saying the open house has been postponed as has the 30-day public comment period (from June 4 to July 4) to "allow further refinement to the draft Terms of Reference prior to a formal public comment period".
Notification regarding future project open houses and public comment periods will be published in this newspaper, said the company.

The 80-page terms of reference document outlines just how and what the company will study as part of its application for an environmental permit.

Katabatic Power, in partnership with the Deutsche Bank AG, are proposing a 700-megawatt wind farm on the north end of Banks Island. The project would include between 250 to 300 turbines as well as substations and 118 km of transmission line that will interconnect to an existing British Columbia Transmission Corporation transmission line south of the Skeena River.

Although no one from Katabatic was available for comment, the report outlines 22 separate areas of study on the human, marine, terrestrial, aquatic and atmospheric environments.

The project would be located in the traditional territory of the Gitxaala, Lax Kw'alaams and Metlakatla First Nations and would also require archeological studies to ensure no historical sites are disturbed.

In the original notice for the meeting, Archie Riddell, project assessment director for the Environmental Assessment Office, noted the intention was to seek the public's comments is to ensure "that all the potential effects - environmental, economic, social, heritage and health - that might results from the project are identified."

The project is only the first phase of North Coast Wind Energy Corp.'s plans for a $6 billion, 3,000 megawatt project on Banks Island.

And the proposal is not without its controversy as environmental groups are concerned about the project's location, within a newly established Land Conservancy that was created following the adoption of the North Coast Land Resource Management Plan.

Conservancies are areas set aside to protect biological diversity and natural environments; protect social, ceremonial and cultural uses of First Nations; to protect recreational values, and to ensure sustainable use of natural resources.

Groups such as the Western Canada Wilderness Committee and Greenpeace, have expressed concern government is taking an end-run around the conservancy process by allowing large independent power projects to proceed in these areas.

The B.C. Environmental Agency will be accepting comments on the North Coast Wind Energy Corp draft terms of reference and the terms can also be viewed on-line at www.eao.gov.bc.ca or at the Prince Rupert Library.

This is the second major wind project underway on the North Coast. Late last year, NaiKun had its environmental terms of reference approved for a 320-megawatt offshore wind farm proposed for the Hecate Strait.