Some Issues

1. Would you let children play unattended on a high-rise apartment balcony – would you trust the waist-high railing as “safe enough”.
   • Well, the power station as currently planned by Swift River Energy Limited would have a waist-high railing around the public look-out which would be 18′ over the Moon River. That is 18′ over the dangerously turbulent water exiting the power station.
   • Have you noticed that teenagers jump off the railway bridge adjacent to the town docks (beside the Don’s Bakery parking lot). They shouldn’t, but they do, and they would probably also try to jump off the planned look-out. This is a serious new danger being added to a well-known tourist destination.
2. Would you want to dock your boat just upstream of the intake to this planned power station. This intake will draw up to 80 m³/s of water, that is 80,000 litres per second, which is over 17,000 gallons per second, 80 metric tons per second, and 175,000 pounds per second of water into the power station. Considering this volume of water, that would be a transport-truck trailer (full-size – 53′) of water every 1.2 seconds, and (taking the trailer only), it would need to be moving at 58 km/h.
   • The water speed in the North Channel would be less (given that it is wider than a transport truck), but still, this is big dangerous stuff. You likely wouldn’t be able to free yourself from tons of water holding you against the “trash rack” grate over the water intake to the power station (which would be only 50 m downstream of the public docks).
   • And if your kayak was held against the safety booms by the flowing water, what could you do. Call for help? – what could passers-by do; attempt a rescue and risk dumping you out of your kayak?, put themselves at risk?, call the volunteer fire department? (what training and equipment do they have, how long would they need to arrive).

The only answer to the above serious safety issues is that the power station shouldn’t be so close to Bala’s falls, the main tourist feature in Bala. The power station should be farther away, in the South Channel.