Save the Bala Falls

Thank you Councillors Sandy Currie, Phil Harding, Donelda Kruckel, and Ruth-Ellen Nishikawa

These Councillors “get it”, they understand that:

1. The proposed hydro-electric generating station in Bala would be extremely dangerous – it would have over TEN TIMES the exiting tailrace flow of the Wilson’s Falls generating station (which is a few km north of Bracebridge), that caused the drowning of a 16 year old boy there in 2008.
    
2. The Township of Muskoka Lakes wishes to sign a lease for the proponent to use three parcels of Township land to facilitate the construction of the proposed Bala generating station.
    
3. The public should be allowed to see and comment on this proposed lease before it is signed – for example, because the proponent:
   • Could choose to use the Township’s Portage Landing and parking lots as construction sites for 20 years.
   • Plans to build a portage on the Moon River directly adjacent to their extremely dangerous tailrace even though in May 2013 the MNR decided this area was so dangerous that the MNR has since not allowed portaging on, or even the public walking on, this MNR land.

   You can see for yourself the proponent’s own plans to build a portage directly adjacent to their tailrace …

   • A zoomed-in and marked-up plan view is here, and elevation view is here.
   • The proponent’s full-page drawing is here, you can see it on the proponent’s own web site here, and their link to the full-page drawing is here.

That is, the MNR says the Portage Landing area is already too dangerous for portaging so in May 2013 prohibited use of this area …

So why is the Township of Muskoka Lakes about to vote to sign a lease for which the proponent would build a portage in the same area which the MNR says is too dangerous.

At the Township of Muskoka Lakes Council meeting on Friday January 15, 2016 there was about to be a vote to approve signing this 20-year lease before the public could see or even provide comment on it, so Councillors Sandy Currie, Phil Harding, Donelda Kruckel, and Ruth-Ellen Nishikawa did all they could do to stop this vote – they walked out.

Taxpayers demand, deserve, and have a right to open and transparent government, thank you Councillors Sandy Currie, Phil Harding, Donelda Kruckel, and Ruth-Ellen Nishikawa for strongly reminding the rest of Township Council of this.
 

Court Decision Appeal
In our November e-Newsletter, we noted our concerns that the Township of Muskoka Lakes is not following all of the required procedures in their plan to lease three parcels of land to the proponent to facilitate their proposed construction. As a result of the Township not responding to these concerns, SaveTheBalaFalls.com subsequently initiated legal action.

As noted in our previous e-Newsletter, the Court’s decision was to dismiss our legal action. After some consideration, SaveTheBalaFalls.com initiated an Appeal of this Court decision and the Township of Muskoka Lakes was informed of this on Thursday last week. As noted above, Township Council has apparently decided to ignore this Appeal.
 

The public safety concerns
We have detailed our public safety concerns here and here.

To those who would like this generating station built as currently proposed, we would like to begin a respectful dialogue to understand your views on these concerns, please contact us at info@SaveTheBalaFalls.com.

Thank You!, it has been a great year
Due to your help and financial contributions, and the good input and advice from many, the unacceptably dangerous proposed hydro-electric generating station at the Bala falls is still only a proposal.

Some of the great work by SaveTheBalaFalls.com and others over the past year includes:

• Boaters hand-delivered more than 500 information packages to area docks, which both increased awareness and provided additional volunteers.
   
• The SaveTheBalaFalls.com information and fundraising tent was set-up in Bala every long weekend last summer, with the strong support of area businesses, reaching thousands of Bala visitors.
   
• We have received the support of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario (who also manage our charitable donations), the Muskoka Lakes Association and the Acton Island Association.
   
• This issue has received international attention through Rob Stewart and Jonah Bryson’s short film “Fight for Bala, Part 1” and also through articles in the Huffington Post, National Geographic, and the Globe & Mail.
   
• Visiting 32 southern Ontario hydro-electric generating stations confirms it would be unprecedented to locate such a generating station in the middle of a popular in-water recreational area – yet the proponent has not shown how this could be done safely.
   
• An independent report from the Lifesaving Society of Canada confirmed the proposed project would “create extreme new dangers to both upstream and downstream in-water recreation”, and advised that plans be presented to the public before any construction be allowed to begin.
   
• We have met directly with senior officials at both the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry and look forward to continued dialogue to ensure the community’s public safety concerns are addressed.
   
• The Township of Muskoka Lakes chose to ignore our offer to avoid legal action as we have questions concerning the Township’s process to lease land to the proponent to facilitate their proposed construction. Our case was heard in Court last month. The judge has since decided to dismiss the case, and we are reviewing the decision and considering options including our right to appeal.

The municipal, provincial and federal governments are all attempting to avoid responsibility for public safety for both area residents and visitors, so we are proud to work with the community, and not be an idle by-stander.

Thank you for your continued support.
 

Court Decision
The judge dismissed the legal action we initiated, the full decision is here.

SaveTheBalaFalls.com is reviewing the Court decision and considering its options including its right to appeal the decision.

We note that we gave the Township of Muskoka Lakes the option of avoiding this legal action, yet they ignored this opportunity. The result is that while the Township claims to be trying to reduce the time and costs of dealing with this issue, they have actually done the opposite, for example:

• Even Mayor Furniss has stated he’d rather the proposed station not be built, yet rather than acting on this he promotes the construction, and as a result the Township incurs unnecessary costs for consultants and lawyers.
   
• Rather than quickly and directly responding to our concerns (see our November 12, 2015 e-Newsletter) the Township chose to instead incur the time, delay, and costs of going to Court.

Public Safety Concerns
As the unaddressed public safety concerns remain, we will continue to pursue these in all ways possible.

We look forward to further meetings with senior officials at the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, and also the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, to discuss how these issues would be addressed.

We are baffled why too many people don’t care that this proposed generating station would drown people.

We are also surprised at the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry’s; reliance on irrelevant approvals, inapplicable other situations, and ridiculous justifications, more detail here.
 

On to 2016
Much work will be required in 2016. As always, e-mail us if you have any questions.

Our main concern about the proposed hydro-electric generating station at the Bala falls is public safety, which the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry has stated they will consider as part of their upcoming assessment of the proponent’s application for Plans and Specifications approval for permanent works under the Lakes and Rivers Improvement Act. We look forward to continued dialogue on how this would be addressed.

That is a polite way of saying we are baffled why too many people don’t care that this proposed generating station would drown people.

Here are eight particular concerns:

1. The situation at the Bracebridge Falls would not apply
    The MNR assumes that because Bracebridge Generation Ltd. operates the Bracebridge Falls generating station that the proponent using Bracebridge Generation could operate the proposed Bala station safely. However, in Bracebridge:
   • There is a 110′-long concrete breakwater directing the flow away from the municipal docks. Bala would have no such protection.
   • The Bracebridge swimming area is 800′ away. But in Bala people would be swimming just a few feet away from the treacherously turbulent water exiting the proposed station.
   • The flow from the Bracebridge station is less than ⅓ of what it would be in Bala.
      
2. The MNR incorrectly believes Bala’s in-water recreation could be stopped
   • The fast and extremely dangerous water exiting the proposed Bala station would continue at least 300′ downstream of the proposed station. The MNR’s warning sign on the Bala north dam would not apply that far and people couldn’t even see it at that distance.
   • There are nearby public and private docks from which people have the right to enter the water and would expect that a “neighbour” has not made the adjacent water deadly.
   • Due to the private shoreline ownership downstream, fencing and “no swimming” signs could not be posted in the required locations to indicate areas of danger.
      
3. Transport Canada’s approval is inadequate
    The MNR is depending on Transport Canada’s approval issued under the Navigation Protection Act, however:
   • This did not consider swimming, scuba diving and wading, as these are not within Transport Canada’s mandate or expertise.
   • This did not assess impacts to boating downstream, as the Navigation Protection Act excludes the Moon River from Transport Canada’s consideration.
   • Transport Canada assumed summer flows would be only 21 m³/s, as this is the average flow in July and August. However, the proposed Bala station would operate at full capacity about 21 days every summer – resulting in flows more than four times this.
     • Considering only the average flows from the proposed Bala station would be like building your house without a roof because it usually doesn’t rain.
        
4. The Wilson’s Falls drowning
    In 2008 a 16-year-old boy drowned as a result of attempting to swim past the fast and turbulent flow from the Wilson’s Falls generating station (this is a few km north of Bracebridge):
   • While it is rare for people to be swimming at, or even visiting, Wilson’s Falls, Bala is an extremely popular in-water recreational area.
   • The flow from the proposed Bala station would be more than ten times that from the Wilson’s Falls generating station.
      
5. The required cycling operation would make this even more dangerous
   Due to the required cycling operation, the proposed Bala station would start, automatically and without warning, at about noon on about ⅓ of summer days – just when people would be in the water only a few feet away.
    
6. It would be unprecedented to build a hydro-electric generating station in the middle of an extremely popular in-water recreational area
    Visiting 32 hydro-electric generating stations in southern Ontario shows that:
   • None are located in the middle of an in-water recreational area, with directly adjacent boating, swimming, and scuba diving.
   • None have public and private docks as close.

   That is, it would be unprecedented to locate a hydro-electric generating station in the middle of a recreational area, yet the proponent has not shown how they would, or even if it would be possible to, operate the proposed Bala station safely.

7. The Royal Lifesaving Society says a safety plan is needed now
    Despite these many in-water dangers, the proponent has not had a competent authority assist with required measures. So we commissioned the Royal Lifesaving Society, who are Canada’s lifeguarding experts, to assess the situation, and they found: “… this development would create an unusually and extremely dangerous situation, and therefore requires a commensurate level of planning … [which] should be started and completed before any construction proceeds, to both ensure it would be practical to implement, and so that any required changes could be incorporated into the design of the proposed station.”
    
8. It would bankrupt Purk’s Place
    As shown by their Public Safety Measures Plan, the Ministry of Natural Resources uses a calculation from Transport Canada to determine the location required for the upstream safety boom. The location and dangers of the intake for the proposed Bala station would require the upstream safety boom to be relocated farther upstream. As a result, boats could not reach Purk’s Place docks, and this would shut down a key part of this important local business.

Now we have more reason to keep working to save the Bala falls

Take a good look at this photograph, because you won’t see it like this ever again.

Without warning even our Township Councillors, at 8:00 am on Wednesday December 9, 2015, the proponent arrived on-site with security guards and a tree-cutting service.

In a lame attempt to hide their identify, the tree contractors covered each side of their truck with a 4′ x 8′ sheet of Alupanel. The contractors were from Lakeside Tree Experts in Barrie.

The proponent had stated they would not begin construction until the spring. They still do not have their permit from the Ministry of Natural Resources to build their proposed generating station, and they cannot begin any in-water work until June. So their now spending less than two days to cut down all the trees on the Crown land was just unnecessary bullying and spite, and shows that their frequent claims that they care about the environment are meaningless.

Eventually the OPP arrived on site, but our supporters only took photographs, as we know the best way to save the Bala falls, is through discussion and legal action.

The proponent’s actions show they continue to only act on their own interests, and have no regard or respect for the community.

We are now even more resolved to keep working to save the Bala falls.

In both Section 4.6 (Screening of Effects, Heritage and Culture) and 6.2.3 (Operational Effects, Adverse Effects on Cultural Heritage) of their 2012 Addendum, the proponent made commitments to not impact Cultural Heritage:

1. They stated: “The proposed modifications to the Project will not result in any net adverse effects to heritage buildings, structures or sites, archaeological resources, or cultural heritage landscapes.”
   • Given that the Township’s Portage Landing was designated under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act (local copy here) for its “natural geography” and other attributes, the proponent has clearly broken this promise.
      
2. After noting that the Township of Muskoka Lakes posted a Notice of Intention to Designate six properties, the listing including the Township’s Portage Landing on the Moon River, the proponent stated: “the Project will not impact any of the listed properties with the exception of being visible from … Portage Landing on the Moon River.”
   • Clearly, cutting down over 100 trees on the Township’s Portage Landing and piling it 20′-high with excavated rock from the adjacent construction site would impact Portage Landing more than just having to look at their ugly building from it.