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Digging Deep column: Take action to keep the Peace

Flooding the Peace River Valley makes little to no sense
Jim Wright
Jim Wright is president of the Garden City Conservation Society.

I recently wrote about an event named Bountiful Peace, which took place in Richmond last week. 

It was about saving the Peace Valley, and it was a wake-up call. That fertile land has been condemned to flooding, but hope remains strong.

If the plan goes through, the Peace River would be blocked at Site C, near Fort St. John, by a hydroelectric dam — higher than Richmond’s tallest buildings and more than a kilometre long. Submerging the valley would change it from carbon sink to greenhouse gas emitter. 

Crucially, it would destroy farmland that would otherwise help B.C. adapt to climate change. 

The warming climate, along with the huge area of excellent soil, would enable the Peace Valley to produce an increasing amount and diversity of food, bolstering B.C food security. 

It would partly offset declining imports from California’s parched Central Valley as our population and food needs rise. 

For us, the Peace Valley may be less replaceable than the Central Valley.

Unfortunately, we have provincial leaders who have skirted both the Agricultural Land Commission, which would likely have conserved the Peace farmland, and the B.C. Utilities Commission, which might have rejected the dam. Our leaders are going all out to flood the valley and not let it address climate change.

Still, if we citizens keep working to understand and advocate for the valley, MLAs and potential MLAs will get the message. 

If the current B.C. government then stops the Site C project, excellent. But since it probably won’t, we need all of those who might form the next government to commit to cancelling Site C as soon as they take power.

As Bountiful Peace presenters made clear, it’s not too late. Site work is in progress, but it can be put to new uses if the project is cancelled within 18 months or so. With dramatic timing, the next B.C. election is due in 17 months — on May 9, 2017.

Meanwhile, there’s ongoing legal action by First Nations and landowners. 

Since flooding the Peace Valley would be as bad for the ecology as it is for agriculture, environmental groups like Sierra Club BC will also stay engaged. 

That said, informed action by enough citizens is key. 

A good springboard is StopSiteC.org.

My “action” has been to make the “Keep the Peace” graphic. 

I’ll see if the campaign can use it on buttons or billboards or something in between. 

In any case, please act, too.

Jim Wright is president of the Garden City Conservation Society.