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Prince Rupert Regional Information Site

NATURE

Sea, land, river

PEOPLES

Community

 

 

 


For earlier materials see Table of Contents

Niakun coming to town

CEAA on Sept 24th

 

 A green project with unknown environmental impacts

Impacts 2 areas –

  • site of Windmills
  • Buried cable across Hecate to Port Ed

CEAA on Naikun presumably triggered by navigable waters and fish habitat – but only a Screening

See my previous NaiKun articles

NaiKun at SQCRD meeting

(ex) ICBC head moves to NaiKun

And other IPP projects locally  

 

Main impacts will be borne by Area A crabbers

See their web site

Catch data came from NaiKun graphic at SQCRD presentation last March

Crabbers see loss of up to 150 jobs in Masset and Skidegate from the wind farm – note how in most years Area A = 2/3rds total crab production in BC --- Numbers from MS Word doc table on Area A site

 

See the article – again as a MS Word Doc

Migrating Birds a worry?

This topic was broached by the Hamels at meetings earlier in year --- my own experience at Triple Island suggests thousands of birds can be killed during low visibility events (fog) during the spring and fall migrations – birds are attracted to the lights

Plus

The Windmill sites (concrete pads) themselves might be altering the currents and changing erosion and sand deposition in area—how to monitor?

 

Cable will be buried between site and Port Ed

While we don’t know the exact location of the cable—nor what the disturbance caused by burying the cable might cause – nor if an electric field will be set up that might interfere with crabs/ fish --- this graphic left shows potential problem areas on ‘edge’ of Dogfish Bank where groundfish are concentrated

 

Rockfish Conservation Areas

Again here are areas where we have previously decided will be refugia for Rockfish – Hopefully no buried cables will cut across a RCA

 

Pollock habitat

Again high value areas will have to be monitored and protected – perhaps there will be a ‘window’ when laying the buried cable will be less harmful to Pollock or Herring

 

Herring Habitat

Again there might be a ‘window’ when works can be done ---

 

What about ocean floor?

There seems to be a distinct ‘edge’ to Dogfish bank (the numeral 1) where appears to be an old shore line or ‘river’ – note the rough terrain at 2 and all through the Chatham Sound area --- burying a cable here might be ‘trickier’ – the dashed yellow line appears a better route

 

 

Figs are taken from good technical 6.5Meg PDF on overview PNCIMA ecosystems done by the Feds

Will there be an impact?

We know there will be – but as the Naikun project will presumably be built in stages we should be able to monitor for adverse effects and change our plans accordingly 

Created by LG on Feb 1, 2006

Last updated on Monday, September 22, 2008