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Use of Decision Analysis
in a Multi-stakeholder Water Use Planning Process for a Hydroelectric
Facility
BC Hydro - Cheakamus
River Water Use Plan Consultative Committee
Recent changes to the law in British Columbia
(BC) Canada mandate that the provincial power authority, BC Hydro,
re-negotiate its water licenses at over 20 facilities using a Water
Use Planning (WUP) process to ensure provincial water management
decisions reflect changing public values and environmental priorities.
The provincial WUP guidelines require basin-scale, multi-stakeholder
consultations and use of advanced decision analysis tools and simulation
models.
In May of 1999, BC Hydro initiated a WUP process
for the Cheakamus River Generating facility near Squamish, BC. ESSA
Technologies Ltd. was retained to provide technical facilitation
/ mediation services for the multi-stakeholder Consultative Committee
charged with selecting a new operating alternative. The committee
included representatives of the provincial and federal agencies
concerned with water, fisheries and power; BC Hydro; local and regional
government; the Squamish First Nation, and non-government environmental
and recreational interests.
ESSA helped the Consultative Committee conduct
a structured decision analysis for the iterative development and
comparison of 25 operating alternatives across competing objectives
for power generation, fish production, First Nations' interests,
flood control, recreation, and the integrity of the aquatic ecosystem.
The decision analysis approach made the tradeoffs amongst alternatives
explicit and helped to elicit the values committee members used
to weight objectives during evaluation. This information was used
to develop new operating alternatives, narrow the set of final alternatives,
and aided the preparation of the draft WUP monitoring plan. ESSA
also provided technical facilitation services and performed modelling
analyses for the Fisheries Technical Committee that reported to
the Consultative Committee. The consultative phase of the Cheakamus
WUP ended in January 2002 and is summarized in the Cheakamus
WUP Consultative Committee Report.
BC Hydro will use the results of the consultative
process to develop an operational plan for the Cheakamus facility
that accounts for the environmental and socio-economic impacts of
dam operation and balances the need to generate power and ensure
sufficient water for fish.
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