Former Hesquiaht Chief Richard Lucas dreamed of a day when his community of Hot Springs Cove would have clean, self-sufficient energy. After 17 years, that dream came close to fruition with the 2021 opening of the Ahtaapq Creek Hydro Project which has reduced the community’s reliance on diesel by 71 per cent.
Lucas lived to see construction begin in 2018, but sadly did not live to see the opening and a long-awaited victory ceremony on Aug 8.
The plant, which the Hesquiaht operate, employs four community members and is now an economic driver for the nation.
It is an important step toward reconciliation, said Chief Councillor Mariah Charleson.
“First Nations people, we relied on ourselves for thousands and thousands of years, and that's how we survived. And the ability to get back to that is a huge step in the right direction.” Charleson said.
The Ahtaapq Creek Hydro Project is completely owned by the nation and managed by the Barkley Project Group, which has installed other similar hydro projects in remote communities along the coast.
It’s a run-of-river hydropower plant, which means that it removes some of the water from a stream, diverts it through a turbine, then returns it farther downstream.
The project employed 17 part-time and four full-time First Nation members during construction — meaning more than half the village’s population of just 40 people took part.
“It's a nation-building project that's going to help these nations advance their right to self-determination,” says Kwatuuma Cole Sayers, executive director of Clean Energy of British Columbia, a key organization that lobbied to get the project funded. “Through energy sovereignty, they'll be able to invest those dollars that went to diesel into something else … improving that quality of life for their citizens. So it's maybe only 40 people, but it's also fundamental to bringing more folks home.”
Construction took three years and received about $16 million of federal and provincial funds, in addition to support from other community organizations and donors. It was a hard sell to get a hydro power project funded for a community of 40 people, said Charleson.
“I think that was probably the biggest piece, is getting Canada and B.C. to understand the importance of this project, to put resources towards it, to make it happen,” said Charleson.
The introduction of hydro power has reduced the community’s reliance on diesel power by 71 per cent — 90 per cent in winter — saving approximately $375,000 a year. The savings allow them to pour funds into vital infrastructure for Hot Springs Cove, which is only accessible by seaplane or boat.
“It would take one walk through the community to quickly see and realize that the conditions that our people are living in are not adequate,” Charleson said. “It's really promising that we're not spending that amount of money moving forward on something just to keep the lights on; it can actually go to things like infrastructure within our community and just things to keep our people who are living at home healthy and safe.”
The community also has also installed a few solar panels, however at times must still burn diesel. The ultimate goal would be a complete transition so they no longer need to transport the fuel in and out of their community, she adds.
The Hesquiaht First Nation has 750 members, but only 40 remain in the reserve community of Hot Springs Cove — and funding for the nation depends on the population of people living on the reserve, Charleson said. The hydro project, combined with the nation's efforts to expand education offerings from grade seven to grade 12, are part of what they hope will make people want to stay.
“Just knowing that this is Hesquiaht owned and operated is something to just be really proud about for our residents living at home,” said Charleson.
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In writing this comment, I am very aware of my 100% settler ancestry, not to mention the adage: fools rush in…
My wish is for honesty rather than dancing around with euphemism, subtext and even settler condescension.
Following the recent CNO article** regarding a hydro project in an indigenous community in northern Quebec, which also lacked vital information, the following information is not mentioned in this article:
- total project cost;
- Whether the $16M in funding from the province and the federal gov’t was as loan, grant or combination;
- Even a minimal overview of the project economics;
- The nameplate capacity of the project. I found that to be only 350 kW (https://barkley.ca/project/ahtaapq-creek-hydro/)
- Any description of the actual project, beyond it being “run of river”.
I believe I found the project in Google:
Intake pond: https://maps.app.goo.gl/2FJ7nckTi7FbdSCy6
Powerhouse: https://maps.app.goo.gl/rqHvZY4CoMvksCkj6
If I have those sites correctly identified, I find it difficult to determine if any amount of water is able to be released from the intake pond to follow the natural water course or if 100% is impounded and routed down the penstock pipe to the powerhouse.
cont...
** https://www.nationalobserver.com/2024/07/25/news/hydroelectric-clean-po…
What _was_ included was a list of pro forma words and phrases which are now de rigueur in articles regarding First Nations – Settler Nation relations; so many boxes to be checked off.
The best I can do in interpreting the sentiment attributed to Chief Councillor Charleson, “It is an important step toward reconciliation”, is that a very small coastal, indigenous community was able to obtain considerable money from the Settler Nation.
I’m still trying to figure out how a project designed, overseen, managed and supplied by colonial industrial entities can possibly be interpreted as self-reliance, which is how I interpreted a subsequent quote from the Chief Councillor: “…the ability to get back to [self-reliance] is a huge step in the right direction.”
If it is, in fact, interdependence, let’s understand and be open about that.
“The hydro project, combined with the nation's efforts to expand education offerings from grade seven to grade 12, are part of what they hope will make people want to stay.”
I wish this topic of retention and even repatriation of nation members living elsewhere had been developed. As it is, it escapes me how a different source of electricity, admitted to be less than matching even the current need, will entice the return of their citizens. There was mention of the $375,000 annual savings netted by a reduced need for diesel, which frees them up for better use. But, there nonetheless remains a need for diesel which also means the associated ecosystem risks remain, if reduced.
Articles like this strike me as originating from “settler guilt”. The topic is not the problem; let’s absolutely be educated about the ways that small, remote communities (Indigenous or Settler) are developing and adapting to changing circumstances. It is the condescending, IMO, framing, and the great sucking sound arising from that, that I find distasteful.
Let me add something.
I'm mid-daily news catch-up and, in the NY Times, found an opinion piece** about American VP candidate Tim Walz, written by the author of "Friday Night Lights".
Towards the end of the opinion, the author quotes the fictional coach in the TV show:
“Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.”
Being a bit of a romantic, that phrase led me back to this article, and seems to me to offer guidance that's a little more fit for purpose than whatever has been offered since our forebears first sailed into a harbour on Turtle Island as the basis for inter-nation, indigenous/settler relationships within our shared territory.
Perhaps the phrase could guide us even more broadly.
**https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/15/opinion/tim-walz-coach-friday-night-…
I feel like you're expecting a quick news article to be an engineering report . . . that nobody would read.
If a number is presented without context, it is worse than meaningless; it risks leaving a wrong impression.
And comments went well beyond just technical details.
In another, somewhat similarly-toned comment I left in response to another CNO article, I mentioned The Narwhal as an exemplar of quality over quantity. They have longer articles which actually require a longer attention span. Or do you think the needed understanding of the evolving world can be transmitted and received in half-baked, tweet-sized bites?
The audience includes the people who actually do build these things. Somebody has to.
It's no weirder than an article about a new car mentioning the horsepower and weight. An article only about how the car made the owners feel would be the weird one.
350 kW is actually quite a lot for 40 people. The general rule-of-thumb was (was, before heat pumps, etc) that residences need 1kW average, with up to 10kW at peak moments (everything on for supper). 40 people are presumably just ~20 residences.
You left a couple of comments, Roy, the first of which doesn't clearly indicate what it was responding to.
For this response...
Yes, 350 kW is quite a lot for 40 people (I've found that the 1kW rule of thumb has moved up in the past year or two to 1.5kW or even 2kW). You can also count the buildings in the town using Google Maps.
My point was that the total cost of the project (which wasn't stated, but is presumably north of $16M, which was mentioned) seems, perhaps, quite high for 350kW. To make that determination, I looked for a comparison IPP; I'm quite aware of the Ashlu Creek project, ca 2005, and that 50MW project was around $150M (presumably in dollars of the day). That's a nameplate capacity of roughly 150 times that for the hot springs cove project for (ballpark) 10-20x the cost (accounting somewhat for inflation). Even at that, the water collection into the intake pond isn't year round so, as the article states, diesel remains as a necessary backup. The Ashlu project wasn't as remote, certainly, as that of Hot Springs Cove, and that undoubtedly resulted in increased cost.
This is certainly a good news story, but did anyone look at geothermal for "Hot Springs Cove"?
At the very least, access to warm water could be used for a direct-heating system, if the housing is close together.