The Town of Peace River is facilitating public comment regarding British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority's (BC Hydro) proposal to build the Site C Dam on the Peace River, seven kilometres southwest of Fort St. John.

The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEA) and the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) are requesting public comment on the draft agreement in order to conduct a harmonized environmental assessment, including the establishment of a joint review panel.

The draft agreement provides information on the process for conducting the review, while also outlining the joint review panel terms of reference and identifying the timelines associated with the key steps of the co-operative process.

"Alberta Environment is acting in the best interest of Albertans by providing unbiased information to the public," said Hendrik Slegtenhorst, the Town's Chief Administrative Officer. "The Town of Peace River has been appointed as an observer for this project by Alberta Environment and we would encourage local feedback."

Copies of the draft agreement are available from the Town Office and the Town website, and public comment open until November 7.

The Town of Peace River has asked that any local comment be copied to the Town Office in order to inform the Town and Council of feedback as the project advances.

This can be done by faxing comments to 780-624-4664 or emailing them to tflynn@peaceriver.net.

If approved, the proposed Site C project would allow BC Hydro to build and operate the dam and 1,100-megawatt hydroelectric generating station – the third in a series of dams situated on the Peace River in British Columbia.

Once built, Site C would be located downstream of the existing generating facilities at G.M. Shrum and Peace Canyon and the respective Williston and Dinosaur reservoirs, which some say have already had a negative impact on both B.C. and Albertan communities bordering the Peace River.

"The existing dams on the Peace have already greatly impacted the Peace-Athabasca delta," said Joe Foy, National Campaign director or the Canadian Wilderness Committee, which has been monitoring the project since its initiation.

"We know that major fisheries resources along the Peace River, should Site C go in, would suffer a major disruption," he added.

"In fact, we've already seen major disruptions in both fish and wildlife through the activities at the Williston dam. Caribou, for instance, were really nailed on the B.C. side, and as a result took a huge heard of caribou and reduced them to endangered species status."

In addition, the Site C dam would also flood more than 5,340 hectares of land in B.C.'s Peace River Valley, creating no shortage of critics.

"It's resulted in a pretty united front of local farmers, conservationists, and First Nation's that oppose the building of the Site C Dam," Foy said. "I don't think people realized that the area they're proposing to flood isn't in the far and back and beyond, it's literally right over people's homes and farms in a very important agricultural area the northern part of the province."

That said, the current and future dams on the B.C. side are also said to create several benefits to communities on the Albertan side, including the ability to control the river's base flow, which can make it easier to operate ferries and ice bridges, (such as those in La Crete and Shaftesbury) while also reducing the risk of flooding. Increased base flows can also provide greater reliability when it comes to water supply compared to natural flows.

This flow regulation that occurs on the Peace River in B.C. consequently creates ideal conditions for downstream hydro developments, such as the 100-megawatt, low head, run-of-the-river hydro facility proposed to be built by TransAlta two kilometres upstream of the Dunvegan Bridge.

Despite the estimated capital cost of the project is an overwhelming $7.9 billion, BC Hydro says Site C would provide the province with the most cost-effective resource options to help meet B.C.'s future electricity needs, with a cost per megawatt hour ranging from $87-$95, based on a 5.5-6.0 per cent discount rate.

However, according to the research done by the Wilderness Committee, B.C. already has enough electricity resources to power the province for many years to come.

"British Columbia's electricity requirements have actually been going down, and it's very, very expensive to build electrical generation for power you don't need," Foy said. "What happens is that you end up selling it at a loss, and given that every dollar you lose on projects such as this comes out of budgets for things such as hospitals and heath care, this is a very costly and ill-timed project."

Construction of the project is expected to take seven years, and if approved for the planned commencement of early works in fall 2013, the total completion including site cleanup, restoration and demobilization is estimated to finish by the end of 2021.