The group opposing the location of a portion of the Waasigan power-line project over claims of potential environmental degradation says it will re-direct its focus to another federal ministry.
Brant Muir, a spokesman for the Upper Shebandowan Lake campers group, said on Monday he only recently learned that concerns about potential “deleterious substances” caused by the power line should be sent to Environment and Climate Change Canada.
Muir said he would be reaching out to that department as early as Monday.
The group had previously appealed to the federal department of Fisheries and Ocean (DFO), after Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources upheld a a decision to allow Hydro One to build the line near the lake as long as mitigation measures were implemented.
Though Fisheries and Oceans is not directly responding to concerns about Waasigan raised by the campers group, a spokesman for that department said in an email it had earlier provided advice to Hydro One as to how to best mitigate the impacts of the power line.
“Through the Fish and Fish Habitat Protection Program, (the department) has reviewed the installation and removal of temporary culverts associated with this transmission line for physical impacts to fish and fish habitat and provided advice to Hydro One,” the spokesman said in an email.
The program “has reviewed the in-water works at near Upper Shebandowan Lake, and has provided advice to (Hydro One), including avoidance and mitigation measures for work in and around water to protect fish and fish habitat,” the department spokesman added.
The campers group contends a portion of the line’s corridor will lead to the contamination of the lake’s upper section because it will cause run-off. It maintains that section of the line should be moved to another corridor that already exists nearby.
Construction has started on some phases of the two-year, $1.2-billion Waasigan project, including right-of-way preparation and access road development.
To be built in two phases, Waasigan is to transmit 350 megawatts of electricity mostly in areas west of Thunder Bay — “enough to power Thunder Bay, twice,” Hydro One claims.
Meanwhile, Hydro One said it has reached “voluntary settlements” with 95 per cent of impacted property owners along the Waasigan corridor route. The utility didn’t release the total number of property owners with whom it has reached agreements.
“While we continue to work with all property owners, Hydro One has obtained all outstanding, necessary approvals for land rights to meet (Ontario’s) Independent Electricity System Operator’s required in-service timeline of the end of 2027,” a utility spokeswoman said in a email.
