Between 3:00 and 3:30 pm on Sunday July 18, 2021 three teenage girls ended up in the north side of the Bala north channel and found the current due to Swift River Energy Limited’s Bala north dam hydro-electric generating station was so strong that they could not swim to shore. Some boys that were on the Bala town docks on Bala Bay saw this situation develop and ran into the north channel and were able to swim to the girls to help them out to shore.
While there were boats near-by, they could not get to the girls to throw them life jackets due to both Swift River Energy Limited’s upstream floating signs and the signs’ anchor chains.
As we have been reporting for years, the area immediately upstream and downstream of Swift River Energy Limited’s Bala north dam hydro-electric generating station is an extremely popular in-water recreational area and there is no way for people to know now that the flow can be extremely fast. These “near miss” events are traumatic both for the people directly involved and those helping rescue and just observing these quickly-development and potentially tragic situations.
The public safety measures for Swift River Energy Limited’s Bala north dam hydro-electric generating station are inadequate and it is irresponsible of them to operate this deadly facility whenever people may be in the water in the area upstream and downstream.
We again request and advise that this generating station not be operated as the public safety measures are inadequate.