Taming B.C. Hydro: Site C and the implementation of the B.C. Utilities Commission Act

Public policy making in resources management is greatly influenced by the institutional arrangements that arise out of the legal powers, administrative structures, and financial provisions of the decision system. In British Columbia, the institutional arrangements for energy planning in the province have been greatly altered by the passage of the Utilities Commission Act in 1980. This act redefines the policy implementation process for energy in British Columbia and provides for the regulation of the province's power utility, B.C. Hydro. This is the first time that the hitherto autonomous utility has been subject to regulation and the Utilities Commission Act represents a major reform in the institutional arrangements for energy planning in the province. The article evaluates the effectiveness of the 1980 B.C. Utilities Commission Act and assesses the impact of the legislation upon the institutional arrangements for energy planning in the province. Data for the article were derived from written sources and a series of personal interviews with key participants involved with energy planning in B.C.It is shown that the act represented a major departure in the management of energy resources in B.C. Moreover the implementation of the act's provisions, particularly in regard to B.C. Hydro, had a dramatic impact on the development of new energy projects in the province. It is suggested that while the political and economic climate during the period also favored restraint, the major influence on taming the utility was passage of the Utilities Commission Act. The article concludes by exploring the implications of policy changes that have occurred as a consequence of the act's impact on B.C. Hydro.     

Federalism and environmental politics: An Australian overview

Summary This overview paper examines past Australian conservation controversies and experiences to identify prospective means of ameliorating environmental conflict in the future. Since all community disputes should be resolved by means of political and administrative actions, emphasis is placed on federalism and intergovernmental relations, and measures are suggested which might improve environmental policy and practices in the future.Dr Bruce W. Davis is currently Head of the Department of Political Science, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, and member of the Council of the University of Tasmania. He possesses qualifications and professional experience in engineering, economics and administration. He has numerous publications within the fields of public sector planning and natural resources management, and acts in an advisory and consulting capacity to State and Federal agencies involved in national parks administration, heritage conservation and land-use planning.In addition to University commitments, Dr Davis holds the following appointments: Commissioner, Australian Heritage Commission; Member, Australian National Commission for UNESCO, Man and Biosphere Program; Trustee, World Wildlife Fund Australia; Councillor, Australian Conservation Foundation; and Consultant to IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.     

Establishing and using study criteria to ensure the rigor and robustness of survival compliance testing at hydroelectric dams

An elaborate set of criteria have been developed by fish managers and regulators to assure the accuracy, precision, representativeness, and robustness of survival compliance studies coordinated within the Federal Columbia River Power System in the northwestern USA. Dam passage survival, defined as survival from the dam face to the tailrace mixing zone, must be ≥96 % for spring out migrating juvenile salmonids [i.e., yearling Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and steelhead (O. mykiss)] and ≥93 % for summer outmigrants (i.e., subyearling Chinook salmon). Survival must be estimated with a standard error ≤1.5 %. However, these quantitative benchmarks are only part of a multifaceted set of criteria, including representative dam operations, river discharge levels, and fish selection, along with tests of model validity that must be satisfied. These criteria are illustrated using acoustic-tag survival compliance studies conducted at The Dalles Dam on the Columbia River, 2010–2012. The results suggest evaluation criteria for survival compliance tests must balance the needs for rigor and robustness with the ability to reasonably perform the tests in naturally varying riverine systems.     

The role of corporations in ensuring biodiversity

Corporations own approximately 25% of all private land in the United States and, therefore, play an essential role in protecting biodiversity and maintaining natural habitats. The Wildlife Habitat Council (WHC) is a unique joint venture between conservation organizations and corporations to utilize corporate lands for ensuring biodiversity. The following case studies demonstrate how corporations have helped ensure healthy ecosystems and provided critical leadership in regional efforts. Amoco Chemical Company's Cooper River Plant has been instrumental in developing a cooperative project that involves numerous corporations, plantation owners, private citizens, nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and community groups to develop a comprehensive, ecosystem-based management plan for part of the Cooper River in Charleston, South Carolina, USA. The second case focuses on the Morie Company, a national sand quarry operator headquartered in southern New Jersey, USA. Morie Company is working with WHC, community groups, the Pinelands Commission, and other state regulatory agencies to explore sustainable development opportunities for companies within the Pinelands regulations. The third case takes us to DuPont Company's Asturias, Spain, site. A win—win success story of improved habitat and cost savings is the result of DuPont's concern for the environment, ability to work with a variety of groups, and willingness to consider innovative restoration techniques. The fourth case discusses Consumers Power Company's Campbell Plant in West Olive, Michigan, USA. In addition to implementing projects that contribute to biodiversity, Consumers Power has developed an environmental education field station to teach others about the importance of natural habitats. The final case highlights Baltimore Gas & Electric Company's efforts to maintain habitat for endangered species at their Calvert Cliffs site in Maryland.     

The environmental dimension to security issues

Summary Citing topical international instances the author demonstrates that environmental impoverishment is a major cause for tension and hostilities between nations. He makes a strong case that an assessment of security concepts should include a measure of environmental and resource-based stability.Few threats to peace and survival of the human community are greater than those posed by the prospects of cumulative and irreversible degradation of the biosphere on which human life depends. In a global context, true security cannot be achieved by mounting buildup of weapons (defense in a narrow sense), but only by providing basic conditions for solving non-military problems which threaten them. Our survival depends not only on military balance, but on global cooperation to ensure a sustainable biological environment.Report of the Brandt Commission, 1980Dr Norman Myers is a consultant in environment and development. He is a prolific author and served as the General Editor toThe GaiaAtlas of Planet Management (1985). In 1983, Dr Myers was awarded the World Wildlife Fund Gold Medal for his work on conservation.     

Measuring environmental performance: Theory and practice at ontario hydro

When an organization embarks on the path of environmental leadership, how does it track and quantify its efforts? This article describes a system for identifying, tracking, and communicating environmental efforts.

1 Anita Wolfe wishes to recognize Richard P. Wells'S article, “Point of View: Environmental Management in Mexico,” TQEM, Vol. 2, No. 3, as an invaluable source in helping to develop this system.

In addition, it examines the experience of Ontario Hydro, Canada'S largest public utility, within a similar framework.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book review in this Article
Drainage of Agricultural Land, by S.C.S., U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. Water Information Center, Inc.
Electricity and the Environment , by a Special Committee on Electric Power and the Environment of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.
Western North Atlantic Ocean: Topography, Rocks, Structure, Water, Life and Sediments , by K.O. Emery and Elazar Uchupi.     

Environmental functions as a unifying concept for ecology and economics

Summary In spite of the increased awareness about many environmental problems, degradation and pollution of the natural environment by human actions still continue on a large scale. Some of the main reasons for man's continued abuse of the natural environment are the short-term nature of the economic planning process, which largely ignores the negative long-term effects of economic production on the environment (e.g. pollution), and the fact that the pricing system mainly concentrates on man-made goods and services while considering most natural resources to be free goods.This paper argues that environmental functions (i.e. natural goods are services) are at least as important to human welfare as man-made goods and services and should, therefore, be included in economic accounting procedures. To this end, it is suggested to replace the term natural resources by the concept of environmental functions and, efforts should be undertaken to increase our understanding of the ecological and socio-economic benefits of environmental functions to human society. Only when ecological principles become an integral part of economic planning and political decision-making is there a chance of achieving a happy global village based on harmony between man and nature.Rudolf S. de Groot is an environmental consultant and a Ph.D candidate in environmental planning and management in the Nature Conservation Department of the Agricultural University Wageningen. As a member of the IUCN Commission on Environmental Planning he is involved in the activities of the European Committee for National Conservation Strategies, to implement, monitor and update National and European Conservation Strategies.     

Environmental problem-solving and land-use management: A proposed structure for Australia

A three-tiered structure of land-use and environmental management is here proposed for Australia. The structure is based on the idea that environment means the environment of people, and that environmental problems arise when a change in the interaction between people and their environment leads to conflicts about the use of land and resources. The heterogeneity of society means that a range of human aspirations and value systems must be satisfied by environmental managers. Existing methods of environmental management fail to achieve these objectives, due to inadequate perception of environmental problems by decision-makers, and the inability of currently available impact assessment techniques to resolve human conflicts associated with the use of land and resources. The main work of planning and managing land use and the environment would be carried out by regional authorities, supported by federal and state policy. Examples are given of moves towards regional administration in England and Wales, Western Australia, Australia and New Zealand. Community participation in the decision-making process is essential and can be achieved by electoral representation to the authoritative bodies and through procedures that ensure informed public comment on planning proposals.     

Environmental impact assessment for Xiaolangdi Yellow River multi-purpose economic-cumenvironmental improvement project

Summary The Yellow River is renowned for its life-endangering floods, a problem augmented by the continuous heavy siltation of its lower flood plain. Major dam and reservoir projects have both positive and negative environmental impacts, and their construction requires careful environmental consideration. This paper outlines the key findings of environmental impact assessment reports related to the Xiaolangdi Yellow River dam/reservoir project. The authors conclude that the project, as planned, should provide an optimal mix of both economic and environmental benefits.This paper is modified from a presentation given to the 1993 Annual Meeting of the International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA) in Shanghai, China.     

Political benefits as barriers to assessment of environmental costs in Brazil's Amazonian development planning: The example of the Jatapu Dam in Roraima

Development projects are rapidly changing the landscape in Brazilian Amazonia. Environmental impact assessments have been required since 1986, and the regulatory system is evolving as precedents are set by each new development project. The Jatapu Dam in Roraima provides an illustration of underlying impediments to assessment of environmental costs and to due consideration being given to these assessments when decisions are made. The high priority placed on the dam by the Roraima state government is unexplainable in terms of economic returns. The place of the dam in a long-term political strategy provides the best of several possible explanations, any one of which is incompatible with a rational weighing of economic and environmental costs and benefits. A number of lessons can be drawn from the experience of Jatapu, but some of the problems have no solution. The barriers to rational decision making illustrated by Jatapu apply to development projects in many parts of the world.     

Educating for our environment: an Australian experience

This paper examines how some of the principles of environmental education have been taken up in environmental strategies and activities in Victoria, Australia. The focus is upon the efforts of the State Government-funded Victorian Environmental Education Council (VEEC) to encourage the development of environmental education in sectors and organizations outside the formal education sector and not usually associated with either the environment or education. The relative success of initiatives fostered in marginalized community sectors and in the private industry sector are discussed. Following the abolition of the VEEC (late 1993) with a change of government, questions are raised about the sustainability of environmental reform agendas in the public political domain. In view of the fragility of sympathetic political environments, it is argued, that for environmentally sustainable development a broader commitment to social justice and social change must be fundamental to environmental education principles and processes to both include all sections of the community and, also, to actually change who makes decisions and how and where they are made.Jeannie Rea lectures in environmental policy and polities at Victoria University of Technology, Victoria, Australia. She was the Trades Hall Council representative on the Victorian Environmental Education Council and worked with others, on a publication chronieling exemplary environmental education projects in Victoria.     

Addressing global responsibility for conservation through cross-cultural collaboration: <Emphasis Type="Italic">Kodama Forest,a forest of tree spirits</Emphasis>

A commitment to conservation of a place is based on the sense of place expressed by its “conceptual community”, including those who are not its residents in the geographical sense, but who nonetheless identify with it for various reasons. With the global nature of environmental issues being clearly recognized, such communities form a “terrain of consciousness” (Berg and Dasmann 1978), extending responsibility for conservation across cultures, time and space. Although the social mobility and diversity brought about by today’s technology often work against the development of a sense of place, they also allow the formation of such conceptual communities, who can highlight local distinctiveness while at the same time positioning local issues in a global context, so generating a sense of global responsibility. In the case of Tasmania, Australia, recent international interest in its ecologically and culturally significant places, such as Recherche Bay and the Styx Valley, has intensified the focus on forest issues, building on Tasmania’s already well-recognized history of environmentalism. It is important that these issues be recognized in Japan in particular, where a rising awareness about climate change and mass consumerism has alerted the public to the problem of deforestation; however the fact that Tasmania is one of the major sources of woodchips for paper production is not widely known. Awareness by the consumer, it is argued, is a foundation for forming a sense of global responsibility and it is necessary to form a conceptual community of those committed to the same issue. Cross-cultural collaboration is therefore necessary, and creativity can be an effective facilitating agent for this. This paper illustrates this point, through the example of the Kodama Forest, a forest of tree spirits, in North East Tasmania, that arose from such a collaboration between a group of Japanese students and a local community group. The collaboration also facilitated meaningful learning opportunities for the students, who chose to study in Tasmania because of its natural environment. The forest now provides a cultural heritage that also defines the evolution of this conceptual community through on-going collaboration. The importance of human connection at all levels, local, regional and global, in promoting environmental sustainability is addressed through the example of this forest.     

Promoting sustainable development in Ghanaian small-scale gold mining operations

This paper provides an overview of the initiatives that have been undertaken by the Ghanaian government to promote more sustainable development in resident small-scale gold mining operations, and recommends a series of strategies for perpetuating a pattern of continued improvement. Since the passing of the Small Scale Gold Mining Law (PNDCL 218) in 1989, which effectively legalized small-scale gold mining as an industry in Ghana, the government, in particular, the Minerals Commission, has made a concerted effort to regularize operations, and to provide technical and financial support to miners. Under the auspices of the German non-profit Gesellschaft Technishe Zusannebarbeit (GTZ), a small-scale gold mining registration system has been implemented, district support centres for small miners have been constructed and the Precious Minerals Marketing Corporation (PMMC) has been created, which purchases products from small-scale miners at near-market prices. Careful analysis reveals, however, that these efforts have collectively only had a marginal impact, and that the industry is still in dire need of aid. Specifically, to perpetuate further a pattern of improved sustainability--improvements in both the socio-economic and environmental arenas--additional technical and financial support must be provided, and sound environmental management practices implemented. The Minerals Commission has been burdened with these tasks and challenges but because it is largely understaffed, it is highly unlikely that it will be able to facilitate sufficient improvement in the sector on its own. Nevertheless, marked improvements can be achieved if: (1) avenues for technological dissemination are created and improved; (2) research partnerships are forged with local universities; (3) experienced consultation is hired when needed; and (4) other governmental agencies, namely the Mines Department, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Geological Survey, provide the Minerals Commission assistance with prospecting, monitoring, regulation and environmental auditing activities.     

Applying Integrated Resource and Environmental Management to Transmission Right-of-way Maintenance

The concept of a substantive integrator is introduced as a method for integrated resource and environmental management as a means to assimilate different resource values at the operational or field level. A substantive integrator is a strategic management tool for integrating multiple uses into corporate management regimes that traditionally manage for single values. Wildlife habitat management is presented as a substantive integrator for managing vegetation on electric utility power line corridors. A case study from northern British Columbia provides an example of wildlife habitat management as a means to integrate other resource values such as aesthetics, access and subsistence along British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority's transmission rights-of-way.     

Destruction of Wetlands and Waterbird Populations by Dams and Irrigation on the Murrumbidgee River in Arid Australia

The Lowbidgee floodplain is the Murrumbidgee Rivers major wetland in southeastern Australia. From more than 300,000 ha in the early 1900s, at least 76.5% was destroyed (58%) or degraded (18%) by dams (26 major storages), subsequent diversions and floodplain development. Diversions of about 2,144,000 ML year^–1 from the Murrumbidgee River come from a natural median flow of about 3,380,000 ML year^–1 providing water for Australias capital, hydroelectricity, and 273,000 ha of irrigation. Diversions have reduced the amount of water reaching the Lowbidgee floodplain by at least 60%, from 1888 to 1998. About 97,000 ha of Lowbidgee wetland was destroyed by development of the floodplain for an irrigation area (1975–1998), including building of 394 km of channels and 2,145 km of levee banks. Over 19 years (1983–2001), waterbird numbers estimated during annual aerial surveys collapsed by 90%, from an average of 139,939 (1983–1986) to 14,170 (1998–2001). Similar declines occurred across all functional groups: piscivores (82%), herbivores (87%), ducks and small grebe species (90%), large wading birds (91%), and small wading birds (95%), indicating a similar decline in the aquatic biota that formed their food base. Numbers of species also declined significantly by 21%. The Lowbidgee floodplain is an example of the ecological consequences of water resource development. Yanga Nature Reserve, within the Lowbidgee floodplain, conserved for its floodplain vegetation communities, will lose these communities because of insufficient water. Until conservation policies adequately protect river flows to important wetland areas, examples such as the Lowbidgee will continue to occur around the world.     

The impacts of recreation and tourism in the remote North Kimberly region of Western Australia

The environmental impacts created by recreational visitors to the wet-dry tropics of Western Australia raise questions about the type of visitor and the capacity of remote areas to 'carry increasing numbers of visitors. This paper looks at those questions in regard to some of the more remote natural attractions in the tropical North Kimberley region. Three locations—Cape Domett at the mouth of the Ord River, the Admiralty Gulf and the Mitchell Plateau—illustrate the differences between attractions, visitors, patterns of visitor behavior and their impacts on the local environment. As the highly variable nature of the Australian wet-tropics renders the use of conventional site indicators of carrying capacity difficult, an ecological alternative is proposed for research. The dominance of local and other Australian four-wheel drivers to the Kimberley and the impacts they create are shown to challenge the government's promotion of the region to overseas visitors and its notion of tourism as a sustainable industry.     

Appreciating the biodiversity of remnant bushland: an ‘architectural’ approach

Tutor in the Department of Geography at the University of Western Australia. In response to the fragmentation and loss of indigenous vegetation caused by the expansion of metropolitan Perth, all levels of government in Western Australia have made some commitment to the preservation of biodiversity. A case for seeing and using vegetation structure as a possible surrogate for biodiversity is presented. The concept and a simple methodology which may be applied without any specialist ecological knowledge or expertise is outlined for the urban developer, engineer, planner, decision maker and educator. The notion that the degree of diversity of the vegetation structure of a banksia woodland remnant may indicate and give a substitute or preliminary measure of biodiversity assists the popular understanding of biodiversity. Such a non-technical yet objective appreciation and measure may prove satisfactory for some conservation purposes, until a detailed professional assessment is made of the plant and animal species in a remnant of native vegetation. It is currently being used by state planning staff in Western Australia for the preliminary assessment of native woodland in areas zoned for urban growth at the metropolitan fringe.     

Towards a new system of environmental governance

Summary Planning, the visible hand of government, is the resource allocation sphere that has the potential to prevent destructive conflict over resources, by creating a long term, rational, ethics-based and participatory decision-making process. Other public decision-making systems (the market, legal and political arenas), by their very nature, cannot adequately protect the environment or ensure sustainable development. However, as presently conceived, Planning⁺ cannot do so either. Reform has been impeded by an ideological bias which defines Planning as diametrically opposed to the market, such that creative alternatives to the two systems of social choice have not been developed.To address this problem, a new tri-partite structure of environmental governance is proposed. Based on an ecofeminist paradigm, it is primarily designed to constrain the potential for the abuse of power, and allow society to address environmental (ethical) as well as social (distributional) and economic (efficiency) issues. In a sense, it rationalises the social decision-making system by re-aligning rights, wants and needs with the appropriate decision-making forum (representative democracy, the market and Planning respectively). The model exposes the need to redesign all these institutions so that they better correspond to their logical functions within the resource allocation system. However, this paper focuses on the Planning system itself.Janis Birkeland was an attorney, architect and planner in San Francisco, USA. She now teaches at the Department of Architecture, University of Tasmania. This article is drawn from a longer 1990 paper Myths and Realities of Planning and Resource Allocation (Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Tasmania), which was presented at the Socialist Scholars' Conference, Melbourne, 18th July, 1991.     

USE OF A DAM BREAK MODEL TO ASSESS FLOODING AT HADDAM NECK NUCLEAR POWER PLANT1

Because of their proximity to necessary supplies of cooling water, nuclear power plants are susceptible to riverine flooding. Greater flood hazards exist where plants are located downstream of large dams. The consequences of the Quabbin Reservoir dam failure on the Haddam Neck Nuclear Power Plant situated on the Connecticut River were investigated using a dam break flood routing model. Reasons for selecting a particular model are presented and the input assumptions for the modeling process are developed. Relevant information concerning the level of manpower involvement is presented. The findings of this analysis demonstrate that the plant is adequately protected from the consequences of the postulated flood event.