Unauthorized Fracking Dam Problem Growing, Ben Parfitt, The Tyee, March 29, 2018:
The number of unlicensed and potentially dangerous dams built in recent years in northeast British Columbia is nearly double what has been reported, according to one of the province’s top water officials.At least 92 unauthorized dams have been built in the region where natural gas industry fracking operations consume more water than just about anywhere on Earth.
That’s far more than the 51 dams previously identified…
..(.the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development – quietly posted a consultant’s report on its website early in the new year.
The report, posted without an accompanying press release, called some of the unauthorized dams potential “time bombs”…
Additionally, the report identified 268 “large” or “very large” artificial water bodies that could be dam reservoirs…
Nearly one third of the dams first identified as unauthorized were later found to have structural problems that posed serious enough risks to human health and safety and the environment that the companies were ordered to take corrective actions. Among the most significant design flaws were dams built without spillways, which are essential to divert water safely away from dam reservoirs in the event that they overfill. Without spillways, dams are at heightened risk of catastrophic failures.
…The lack of fines for building a dam without the required pre-approvals does not surprise Arthur Hadland, a longtime area resident, farmer and former elected director for the Peace River Regional District.
“It’s the Wild West up here,” says Hadland, who while a regional district director between 2008 and 2014 represented about 7,000 rural residents living in the outlying region around Fort St. John.
“There’s no sense of stewardship anymore,” Hadland laments. “We’ve lost that.”
The Evidence Adds Up: Site C Is Still a Train Wreck, Andrew Nikiforuk, The Tyee, March 30, 2018:
…Now I can understand why construction unions love mega-projects because theymostly go over budget and over schedule and rarely deliver their promised benefits.
Even Oxford business professors now describe megaprojects as dubious gravy trains for a select few.
Once upon a time unions just didn’t think about jobs for their members but considered the broader public interest, the health of our democracy and the integrity of Crown agencies designed to serve the public…
The best political evidence suggests that the government is not building Site C to power 450,000 homes but instead wants to provide “clean” energy for oil and gas companies so they frack shale rock and pretend that the export of liquefied natural gas is somehow “clean.”
Until I find evidence to the contrary, I shall continue to report on Site C as a slow-moving fiscal and moral train wreck for the province and the country.
Categories: Fracking, Methane Gas, Site C
in-sights.ca 
The article about the dams was interesting so I read another. You know how bad habits once formed just lead to others. This article referred to all the illegal dams as having been built quietly, so my suggestion is we have the builders of these illegal dams just as quietly arrested. Why NOT? where is Weaver when you need him?
if these dams are illegal and they certainly appear to be, then the owners of them ought to be arrested. If you kill a wild animal you get arrested. If you speed you get arrested. You do any number of illegal things you get arrested, so my question is why aren’t the builders/owners of these illegal dams being arrested. I’m sure the previous government had no interest in arresting their “friends”, but we do have a new government with the Greens supporting them. Perhaps it is time to arrest a few of these owners and perhaps if the NDP isn’t going to do something about it our Green leader, who wants to be premier could get out of his office and do some hard work……….citizens arrest anyone?
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This province had 16 years of the B.C. Lieberals. Don’t expect any government to undo 16 years of wrong doing over night. Usually it takes about as long to undo things as it was to do them. This government is not the government of Dave Barrett. Just remember he made all the changes, but was only in office for 36 months.
Trying to get rid of John Horgan is not a good plan. He is popular with the general voting public. You want the NDP to go back to being opposition, go for it. Its all nice to have all these positions, but if it doesn’t keep you in office, what good is it?
As to having David Eby replace John Horgan, perhaps Mr. Eby isn’t interested. He is able to focus on his A.G. duties and not worry about the rest of the things Horgan does. People need to get a grip and be realistic.
if people don’t like those dams, then get on the local politicians cases and work to have them removed. I understand that is a lot more difficult than just writing, but alas, change requires a lot of hard work. Some of those dams are a danger to the general public. Any one taken on the companies who built them instead of complaining to the NDP? What were people doing while the B.C. Lieberals were in office?
Here on Vancouver Is. people protested constantly, got t.v. coverage and worked very hard to make changes. Their water quality was important to them. If you don’t like those dams, get with the agenda and do the work the people did to deal with the water quality issues.
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BC Hydro rates went up 3% on April 1. Gotta pay the $56+ billion owed for IPP power somehow.
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Excellent objections to the latest round of Government Corruption with John Horgan inexplicably continuing the Campbell-Clark Corruption Train Wreck of Beautiful BC (see BC Rail/Cocaine Trial and scam).
Horgan should leave [edited for legal reasons]…
David Eby should take over as party leader and Premier. He is the only one with his credibility intact.
He personally told us that he was bringing in Government Whistleblower Protection laws in early January 2018.
Who stopped him from doing this?
If these laws were in place then the good folks in the BC Civil Service could rat out the bad apples in the Government and put them in jail and help clean up the BC government.
We have great faith in David Eby and the good, honest, hard working folks in the BC Civil Service.
[edited for legal reasons]
Thanks Norm for never giving up.
Tiochfaidh ar la!
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In January 2018, David Eby promised whistleblower protection would be introduced “next year.”
The promise was reported by Georgia Straight in David Eby posts speech on transnational money laundering and what he’s doing to address B.C. housing crisis.
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