Third “near miss” incident due to summer operation of this dangerous generating station

On Sunday July 18, 2021 at approximately 5:50 pm a middle-aged woman ended up in the Bala north channel, and was in a panic (others heard her shout “O God, O God”) as instead of being able to swim to the north shore she was swept by the quickly-flowing water to the north side of the upstream safety boom. This flow was greater than she had ever experienced there before, and she was clearly very surprised by this as she was outside of the safety boom, where one would expect  to be safe from dangerous currents. This flow was due to the flow through Swift River Energy’s Bala north dam hydro-electric generating station.

Fortunately, Purk’s Place was open at the time (but would not have been a few minutes later), and all this was witnessed by two very experienced people there, who talked her through what to do.

They heard the woman’s cry for help and could see she was hanging on to the upstream safety boom and did not know what to do:

• She did not know there was a metal structure below the safety boom to assist her moving along the safety boom.
• As noted here, due to Swift River Energy Limited’s non-compliance with their own Public Safety Measures Plan, it would have been extremely dangerous for this woman to attempt to get out of the Bala north channel to the shore closest to her, even though that would be the logical choice.

This is the second time the high flow created by Swift River Energy Limited’s operation of their Bala north dam hydro-electric generating station could have caused a drowning (the first could have caused three drownings, more detail here).

Most of the summer flow through Bala used to be through the south channel, but Swift River Energy Limited’s dangerously-irresponsible operation of this generating station brings this fast flow to the in-water recreational areas.

In 2019 the Council of the Township of Muskoka Lakes has unanimously-passed two Resolutions requesting this generating station not be operated in the summer, but Swift River Energy Limited has chosen to ignore these.

Swift River Energy Limited:

• Has inadequate public safety measures, which do not comply with their own Public Safety Measures Plan.
• Have not demonstrated to affected parties, such as Purk’s Place, the impact of the new dangers created by the flows into their generating station (such as what happens when the station’s operation suddently stops, and the impact on boating at Purk’s Place docks at the various flows the generating station creates).