Hello everyone.

Wednesday, November 8, 2000, from 12:30 to 4:30
1st Floor Boardroom, Environmental Assessment Office, 836 Yates Street, Victoria

BC Hydro is hosting a pre-application meeting of "agencies" to introduce those agencies to their Port Alberni Generation Project (PAG). This is a 260MW cogen, to be located on Tebo Avenue in Port Alberni. In the documentation available, no companies are named as partners, and no technical specs are given.

The GSX Coalition intends to try to be present. Some media will be notified.

A full EAO review is required for PAG. This is a different proposal, at a different location, than Port Alberni Cogen (PAC). 
PAC is like Sleeping Beauty, but not likely to be kissed very soon by a handsome prince. PAG is her replacement.

Consider these points:

• PAG is not a "cogeneration" plant. It's a "generation" plant, and steam from it will not be used in the mill. An argument used to sell Island Cogeneration in Campbell River and PAC was that the steam would replace old boilers, and thereby reduce the net greenhouse gas output from the mill. By moving PAG off the millsite, that net benefit, such as it is, goes away.
• if this plant is cleaner than the original PAC and cleaner than ICP, then Campbell River should be angry, and Port Alberni should be offended.
• if this plant is not cleaner than the original PAC and ICP, then Port Alberni should be enraged.
• is the water supply and water outflow pipe system in place at Tebo Street in Port Alberni? If not, will it be above ground?
• this big plant is right in town, not hidden behind the mill. 
  Will it enhance local aesthetic values?
• moisture and other air emissions are going to increase poor visibility days in Port Alberni, a town already troubled with serious and prolonged inversions and fog
• promised jobs are an illusion. Construction jobs are short term, specialized skills are all imported, and there's no incentive to train local tradesmen because there's only one plant to build. 
  The handful of operating jobs (18-23 seems a common figure) also require some skills that are likely to be imported. Examine these numbers closely - as presented they are just like election promises.
• the present and future price of natural gas is well beyond what it was when this idea was first concocted. Is the economic justification for gas-fired electricity still valid?

Hydro is going to fight this campaign like it matters to them. It does matter to them, unfortunately. To feed the PAG, Hydro needs the GSX. To justify the GSX, they need PAG.

The AV Times will love it. There'll be no shortage of material from Hydro. What about the counter campaign to bring sense to this proposal? Are there one or two or three people willing to go public on this?

I'll leave it there for the moment. More to come... Remember, send your comments to paglist@sqwalk.com

Arthur Caldicott
arthur.caldicott@sqwalk.com
250-743-5551