BC Hydro’s Site C Clean Energy Project is a hydroelectric generating station on the Peace River in British Columbia. Site C will provide 1,100 megawatts (MW) of capacity and about 5,100 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity each year, enough to power the equivalent of approximately half a million homes annually.
EDI has been carrying out the role of Independent Environmental Monitor (IEM) on the project since fall 2015, with various EDI team members continuing to support the task. EDI, as the IEM, is retained by BC Hydro to fulfill commitments made to both the Comptroller of Water Rights under the project’s Conditional Water Licences, and as a condition of the project’s Environmental Assessment Certificate. In the role of IEM, EDI is responsible for observing and monitoring construction and reporting on regulatory compliance as per permits, licenses, approvals, and environmental protection plans.
As IEM on the project, EDI provided environmental oversight during the construction of numerous project elements associated with the Site C dam, including the earthfill dam, various water management infrastructure, approach channel, intakes, spillways, powerhouse, substation, borrow areas, four material quarries, a 6-km till conveyor, 30 km of realigned highway, five major highway bridges, a 75-km transmission line, reservoir clearing, fish passage facilities, fish habitat compensation works, and a variety of ancillary works associated with the operation of the dam and generating station. In addition to monitoring project works for environmental compliance, as IEM, EDI is also involved in site inspections, document review, report writing, project-related meetings, and providing recommendations for works to proceed under the project’s water licences with the Province of British Columbia.