The proponent has so little understanding of public safety and how the area is used that the changes proposed in their Public Safety Measures Plan would instead create new dangers.
As shown in the composite graphic below (click on it for a larger view), the proponent would place 11 large floating signs (each 4′ wide by 6′ long) directly south of the Township of Muskoka Lakes’ public docks. These are shown by the red rectangles below.
The problem if boats leaving the public docks can’t turn upstream sharp enough, or the motor stalls, or the wind gusts, or the current caused by the generating station is too strong, then you’ll end up within the floating signs, as shown by the orange line and “x” below.
- Each of these 11 floating signs would be anchored with at least three steel cables, so if your motor’s propeller gets damaged by a cable, or the wind blows your canoe sideways, and you can’t get out of this death trap, in less than a minute you’ll be pulled by the current to the upstream safety boom (shown by the red line in the graphic), and the force of the water against that could tip you out of your boat (as was found by a Coroner for a previous drowning due to a hydro-electric generating station in Québec).
- If you fall over the safety boom, in 45 seconds you’d be held under water by the tons of water per second flowing into the huge trash rack, and that would be your end.
That is; from fun recreational boating on a navigable waterway to dead in about 120 seconds.
Safe and unobstructed boating is a fundamental right of Canadians, protected by the Canadian Navigable Waters Act. In fact, this recent Press Release from Transport Canada states that both notification to, and input from, the public is required as part of Transport Canada’s process for assessing such proposed works. This has not happened in this case, and the result is that unacceptable obstruction and dangers would be created.
We are further perplexed by Transport Canada’s response on this issue as:
- They refuse to require the upstream safety boom to be relocated farther upstream even though their own calculation shows this is required.
- Instead of protecting boating navigation, their Navigation Protection Program office instead accepted the proponent’s planned obstructions. And these obstructions could create a death trap, not allowing boats to get away from the upstream safety boom.
We are very troubled that Transport Canada is not fulfilling their mandate as they have approved this dangerous floating sign plan which would also be an obstruction to boating.
But that’s not all:
- The proponent claims their plans comply with the Canadian Dam Association’s Guidelines for Public Safety Around Dams, but they would not as the Guidelines require safety booms to delineate hazardous areas. As shown in the graphic, the proponent’s generating station would create flow more than three times the velocity that Transport Canada says is safe for kayaking outside outside of their proposed downstream safety boom.
- On the south side of these 11 floating signs is Diver’s Point – called that because of its popularity for Scuba diving. This public land has long been used as a base by both by diving schools and recreational divers. Clearly this area could not continue to be used for Scuba diving due to the extreme danger of being drawn to the 30′ deep x 35′ wide trash rack intake.
Until a neutral third-party with in-water recreational safety expertise has approved a safety plan, this dangerous industrial facility must not be permitted to operate from May through October.