Dam Committee Considers Operating Alternatives

VANCOUVER, BC -- - The Duncan Dam Water Use Plan (WUP) Consultative Committee is currently in step 6 – creating alternatives and step 7 – assessing trade-offs between operating alternatives of the water use plan for BC Hydro’s Duncan Dam facility.

Initiated in August 2001, the aim of the 13-member Duncan Dam Consultative Committee is to develop an operating regime for the Duncan Dam facility that balances the needs of all water use interests in the Duncan Reservoir and the Duncan River.

"Over the past year and a half the Committee has moved ahead by collecting information, completing studies to fill data gaps, and developing ways to measure the positives or negatives of potential operating alternatives," said Duncan Dam WUP project manager, Sue Foster. "This past January the Committee identified the first round of potential alternatives to operate the system. These alternatives have been modeled by BC Hydro, and the Committee will now consider the overall impacts of each alternative, including how they affect other interests at the table." Interests being considered during this trade-off phase of the consultative process include: fish, recreation and tourism, heritage and culture, quality of life (includes mosquitoes), flood management, power and wildlife objectives.

As much as possible, the goal of the Duncan Dam water use planning process is to achieve consensus on an operating alternative that satisfies the full range of water interests, while respecting legislation, Columbia River Treaty requirements and other boundaries. Upon completion of the trade-off process, a Consultative Committee Report will be prepared documenting the areas of consensus and disagreement among the Committee members. The interests and values expressed in this report will be used by BC Hydro to prepare a draft Water Use Plan for the Duncan Dam facility. It is expected that both the Consultative Committee Report and the draft Water Use Plan will be submitted at the end of 2003 to the Comptroller of Water Rights for regulatory review under the Water Act. Once the review and approval is completed, BC Hydro will implement operational changes as directed by the Comptroller. The Committee is expected to complete its work by September.

The Duncan Dam WUP Consultative Committee includes First Nations, provincial agencies, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, local government, BC Hydro, local residents and other interested parties.

The Consultative Committee has met six times since the water use planning process began. Numerous meetings of the Committee sub-committees have taken place to address specific issues.

Duncan Dam located 42 kilometres north of Kaslo, was the first of three Columbia River Treaty dams to be built by BC Hydro. Construction of the earth-filled storage dam across the Duncan River Valley started on September 24, 1964 and was declared operational on July 31, 1967. The structure consists of an earth-filled dam, two discharge tunnels on the west side of the dam, and a concrete spillway located on the east bank of the dam.

The Columbia River Treaty was signed in 1961 and ratified in 1964 between the Canadian federal government and the United States. BC Hydro was appointed as the Canadian Entity under the Treaty. Under the terms of the Treaty, Canada operates 15.5 million acre feet (MAF) of storage at the Mica (7.0 MAF), Hugh Keenleyside (7.1 MAF) and Duncan (1.4 MAF) projects in coordination with the U.S. to maximize power and flood control benefits in both countries. In return, Canada receives payments for the flood control benefits and one-half of the additional power benefits generated at U.S. projects.

For more information on the Duncan Dam Water Use Plan, please contact Sue Heaton at (250) 365-4562.