For Immediate Release - Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Proposed Power Line in Park Continues to Draw Controversy and Crowds

Mission, BC – A public meeting being held tonight in Mission will help determine if a power line will be allowed through Pinecone Burke Provincial Park. The open house, one of three scheduled, will also invite public comment on whether seven private hydro projects will go ahead in the adjacent Upper Pitt River Watershed, an important wild salmon sanctuary.

“Tonight we will be holding the BC government accountable for trying to put a power line through a provincial park and for allowing our wild salmon to be threatened by a private hydro project,” said Gwen Barlee, policy director with the Wilderness Committee. “We invite Minister Penner to attend this meeting and listen to the people of BC who put salmon and parks ahead of corporate profits.”

The open house follows on the heels of a raucous public meeting held on February 28th in Pitt Meadows, which saw the local fire marshal shut down the event due to massive overcrowding. The proponents, who rented a room with capacity to hold 150 people, were unprepared when over 500 people came to the event to voice their opinions. Due to public insistence, the Pitt Meadows meeting is currently being rescheduled.

The event is being co-hosted by Northwest Cascade Power Ltd., and the BC Ministry of Environment. The meeting will be held at the Best Western Mission City Lodge, 32281 Lougheed Highway (west of Cedar Valley Conn). The open house is from 4:00 to 9:00 PM. The question and answer session is from 6:30 to 8:30 PM. The Wilderness Committee is renting a bus to take people to tonights meeting. The bus will arrive in Mission at 7:30 PM.

Public concern over private hydro projects has grown since 2002 when the BC government announced a new energy plan that forbade BC Hydro from producing new sources of hydroelectricity. This led to a gold rush by private power producers to stake rivers and creeks for power production. Since 2001, over 60 water licenses have been granted for private hydro projects, and 433 additional applications are pending.

Situated in the heart of Katzie First Nation territory, the Upper Pitt River Valley is an ecological treasure. It supports the largest remaining wild coho salmon population in the lower Fraser and has a unique race of sockeye. It provides habitat for all species of Pacific salmon plus steelhead, cutthroat trout, Dolly Varden and the largest population of bull trout remaining in the lower mainland. The Upper Pitt River Valley also attracts grizzly bears, wolves, marbled murrelets, wolverine and mountain goats.

The Wilderness Committee is calling for hydropower to be publicly owned, regionally planned, and environmentally appropriate. The private power project being proposed for the Upper Pitt Valley fails on all three counts.

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For more information please contact:
Gwen Barlee, Wilderness Committee, 604-683-8220 (w) or 604-202-0322 (c)