BC Hydro to spend $126 million on Keenleyside dam fix-up near Castlegar

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Photo of Hugh Keenleyside Dam near Castlegar

According to an article by Business in Vancouver reporter Sean Kelenko, BC Hydro is facing growing criticism over a stable of increasingly pricey capital projects and a ballooning debt, BC Hydro is also paying a $126 million bill to renovate a decades-old dam that generates no electricity for the Crown corporation.

According to its updated service plan, BC Hydro plans to replace the spillway gates at the Hugh Keenleyside Dam near Castlegar, “to increase public and employee safety and ensure the gates meet flood discharge reliability requirements.”

Completion of the job is expected in the fall of 2016.

The goal of the project – to ensure Keenleyside’s flood discharge requirements are maintained – is in line with the dam’s origins. But why BC Hydro is charged with paying for that project is less clear.

Keenleyside was one of three dams built in B.C., along with Mica and Duncan, as part of the Columbia River Treaty. The treaty was a deal struck between Canada and the United States in 1960s to control the periodic Columbia River flooding and to generate electricity on both sides of the border.

Read the whole story here.

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