The proponent’s non – “safety plan”
Apparently embarassed by how ineffective it will be, the proponent has not publicized that they have posted their Bala Generating Station Public Safety Measures Plan on their web site, here.
While this Plan may be very useful as it provides a handy form to report incidents such as drownings (helpful checkboxes include “Location of Incident: Upstream”, “Incident Type: Fatality (not suicide or homicide)”, and “Person(s) doing at the time: Canoeing / Kayaking …”) – imagine the time and hand-writing this will save!, the Plan does not present any safety measures that will adequately protect the public for this unprecedented situation of building a dangerous hydro-electric generating station in the middle of an extremely popular in-water recreational area.
For example:
- A Québec Coroner investigating a drowning due to a hydro-electric generating station there found that it appeared that the upstream “safety boom” contributed to the danger by tipping the people’s canoe due to the force of the flow of water against it.
- In the past, during the summer the fast water through Bala has been directed through the Bala south channel, so the Bala north channel is calm, as you can see in this video taken June 19, 2019 which shows a flow of 150 m³/s down the Bala south channel. However, the operation of the Bala generating station would result in flow of 2/3 of this through the Bala north channel on more than 20 days each summer.
- People being tipped out of their canoe by the Bala upstream “safety boom” would be carried by the fast water and be at the unattended Bala generating station’s intake trash rack within 45 seconds and would be held under water and that would be their end.
The proponent’s “safety plan” does not resolve this or other dangers such as treacherously turbulent water from their generating station extending outside of their downstream safety boom.
The public will rightly expect that it would be safe to use the Township of Muskoka Lakes’ docks, including the Township’s docks that are directly adjacent to the Bala north channel. But using these docks would have new risks created by the operation of the Bala generating station. So it is likely that legal actions initiated due to injuries resulting from the operation of the Bala generating station would include actions against the Township of Muskoka Lakes.
As the Bala generating station project has been entirely driven by the Province of Ontario (providing the land, the approvals, and payment for power that would be produced), we feel the Province should take responsibility for these dangers created and fully indemnify the Township, including paying 100% of any costs incurred in defending against any legal actions.
We will therefore be Delegating at the Township of Muskoka Lakes Council meeting tomorrow, October 16, 2019, asking that the Township request this indemnification from the Province.