Green group vows fight over King power plant
The environmental group says it will fight any move to use a 60-year-old Hydro 1 easement across the Cawthra Mulock Nature Reserve for a transformer connecting to the power plant. A transformer tower on a nature reserve would clearly be at odds with Ontario Nature's mandate to protect wild spaces, spokesperson Amber Cowie said.
"Opening the door to infrastructure in one of the few natural areas left is really not what we want to do."
Ontario Nature owns and manages the 109-hectare reserve, between Bathurst and Dufferin Sts. north of Green Lane, one property away from the proposed plant.
In December, Ontario Power Authority chose Pristine Power of Calgary to build the 393-megawatt, $365 million peaker plant, intended to handle peak periods and emergencies, and slated to be in operation by the end of 2011.
In a letter to OPA, Mark Carabetta, conservation science manager with Ontario Nature, said the terms of the easement dictate it can only be used by a government agency, not a private company. "Accordingly, the only option available is to swiftly nullify (OPA's) selection of Pristine and move to an alternative option," he concludes.
Jeff Myers, president of Pristine, said the nature reserve easement is only one of four options under consideration. But if the company were to run its transformer lines across the reserve, it would conform to the strict terms of the easement agreement, he said: "Hydro 1 connects to us, we don't connect to them."
Related News
Clean B.C. is quietly using coal and gas power from out of province
VANCOUVER - British Columbians naturally assume they’re using clean power when they fire up holiday lights, juice up a cell phone or plug in a shiny new electric car.
That’s the message conveyed in advertisements for the CleanBC initiative launched by the NDP government, which has spent $3.17 million on a CleanBC “information campaign,” including almost $570,000 for focus group testing and telephone town halls, according to the B.C. finance ministry.
“We’ll reduce air pollution by shifting to clean B.C. energy,” say the CleanBC ads, which feature scenic photos of hydro reservoirs. “CleanBC: Our Nature. Our Power. Our Future.”
Yet…
