UPotable water, thick red mud and a powerful utility operator. For residents of a remote community in British Columbia, the past three years have been a nightmare after losing their source of clean water.
But now, Hudson's Hope has emerged as an unlikely victor in its battle against BC Hydro, the province's utility operator on the brink of ending a controversial dam that, one councilor says, threatens the community with financial ruin and is “exhausted. Consumed and broken.”
Hudson's Hope, a town of about 1,000 people, has long drawn its water from the Peace River in the northeastern parts of the province. But recently, a push by A Dam has raised Canadian provinces' water security and exposed the losses of multibillion-dollar infrastructure projects.
When approved in 2014, the Site C dam was billed as a C$9bn (£5bn) investment. Residents were told the trade-off was to generate 4,600 gigawatt hours. Clean Energy flooded more than 5,000 hectares (12,300 acres) of land a year, which is located on the traditional territories of Treaty 8 First Nations and contains some of the best agricultural land in the province.
Since then, costs have ballooned to C$16bn, and experts have questioned the wider strategic value of the massive dam, which is set to begin operating next year. Despite hopes of minimal impact on the environment, thousands of animals, including 12,500 moose, have already died due to flooding.
For Hudson's Hope, the problems first started with BC Hydro, when the city needed BC Hydro to build a new water treatment plant at the end of Site C – giving BC Hydro a shift.
BC Hydro, the Crown corporation that oversees much of the province's energy supply, offered a similar option to diverting their intake from the river, but the city was advised by consultants to drill a well for their water supply instead. BC Hydro funded that option, but it soured within months.
The result is “absolutely disgusting water,” said city councilor Dashana Winnicki. Residents were ordered to boil their water and families complained of children getting rashes. High levels of iron and manganese gave the water an orange and black color. Hydrogen sulfide gave it a pungent odor and to remove it, oxygen was pumped to aerate the water – which in turn allowed anaerobic bacteria to thrive.
“It created red sludge in our appliances and toilets,” says Winnicki, who works as an environmental scientist and biologist. “There is no system that can treat this kind of water.”
Hudson's Hope later secured a C$2.5m emergency loan from BC Hydro, intended to finance a temporary solution to the city's water problems.
Only part of that has yet to be paid, Winnicki alleges, with more than C$1.4m still outstanding. The city later returned to drawing water from the river, but as the water quality deteriorated, the city had to rent a temporary filtration and treatment equipment, which cost C$32,000 monthly. This decision left the council with little money to fund routine and necessary maintenance in the community.
Winnicki said a culvert under a road needed repairs, but the city couldn't pave the road after the work was done. The children's playground will not be inspected next year and the council cannot fund a replacement.
“In the last two years, we've had more midnight calls than ever before,” Winnicki said. “We lost our senior stuff to burn. The stress is indescribable. As a people, as a society, we drifted apart. We needed help.”
“Our city is already affected. We didn't grow up. Businesses are closing down. The dam brought in construction workers and road workers. Our country should prosper. But it's not,” said Nicole Gillis, a realtor in the community. “It's very difficult to sell a house in a city with bad water.”
Half of the city's population is employed by BC Hydro, including most councilors and the mayor. “They can't speak out for fear of losing their jobs,” Winnicki said. “We had to give up a lot to keep this city. It still feels like everything around us is falling apart – because it is.
On Sept. 20, BC Hydro said in a statement that it “recognizes the challenges” Hudson Hope faces, due to the “previous failure” of the city's water treatment infrastructure — adding the decision to build the well was the city's choice. , not BC Hydro.
The utility operator said it has already committed C$6m to help Hudson's Hope treat its water and values its “strong relationship” with the city.
Days before the community voted on a plan to borrow an additional C$5m for a permanent water treatment facility, BC Hydro reversed its position and offered to fully fund the project and cover the cost of operating the temporary solution.
“I am happy that they have changed their perspective on their moral obligations to society,” Winnicki said. “But all we have is an offer. We don't agree. We still have a lot of questions.
BC Hydro said it will not comment on the matter during the ongoing provincial election campaign.
“If more people had been able to speak up, would we have reached this point? “When BC Hydro works in more than half of the cities and people's paychecks are on the line, it puts everyone in a bad position,” Gillis said.
Residents like Gillis say the callous way the hydro operator handled the situation is a grim reminder of the balance between massive, often high-budget projects and communities bearing the consequences.
“I feel like our small size and limited resources have been used against us,” Winnicki said. “We are a small community. We are at a breaking point. We fought back because we had no choice.
“But we want only one thing. We need our clean water back.
