|
review by June Ritting
Although the points made in this article refer to the US much of what is said has application for NZ and is increasingly familiar. In-light of the Waitaki River Hydro scheme and the recent proposal by the Minister for the Environment to 'soften' the Buller River , Gowan River and Nelson Lakes resource consent protection, it seems a timely commentary. 'It would not be far fetched to say that modern society was built with water. Waterways provided food, transport, and drinking water. Today they provide the electric power to run the machines, factories, and irrigation to run the farms. Today. 85% or all US waterways are artificially managed with 620,000 miles of rivers impacted by hydro power projects and dams. Together, they account for less then 10% of the total US electricity generated. ' There are those who would sell hydro power as clean....there are effects of hydro power on river systems, ...it is not clean. There is a cost. '... Hydro power projects are still rarely examined in terms of environmental costs.....the analysis is based on how much electricity can be produced against what it costs to build and operate, Environmental impacts caused by dams (or irrigation schemes) are " external to the transactions". 'It is the natural flow regime that produces the rivers physical and biological habitat and ultimately creates its ecosystem and the life that occupies it.....The life in the rivers has not evolved to deal with these fluctuations. Habitat is washed away or normal food sources are unavailable. Flow rates artificially slow and heat the water. Increased silting and de-oxygenation of the water down stream leads to alga blooms. “One tool used to mitigate the effects of the dams in the Colombia River Basin in the Western US has been to put over a billion hatchery salmon and steelheads into the river system. Annual runs of pacific salmon have dropped from as many as 16 million before 1980 to less then 1 million of which less then 10% are wilds. The Snake River and the middle and upper Colombia River salmon and steelheads are now listed under the Endangered Species Act. In the western Us. 80% of the water withdrawn from rivers is gobbled up by agriculture. The cleanest water is of little use if there is not enough of it. State water rights laws allows water users to take every drop, dewatering miles of streambeds. Water rights are granted for ' beneficial uses' but not for leaving in the streams for the natural wildlife and ecosystems. Very few truly wild rivers are left, almost all are managed, damned, or water withdrawn for irrigation. Although the facts and figures from this article come from the U.S. the similarities what is happening here in N.Z. should set off alarm bells in all of us. Once completed the Waitaki Hydro Scheme will produce enough power for the current city of Auckland. By the time it is completed we will require another scheme of equal size and another river will be sacrificed. When will enough be enough. Seasonal weather changes and global warming will continue to create and increasing demand for irrigation as we try to keep marginal land in production. When do we say the cost of these things to our natural ecosystems is too high. Just as the U.S. article concluded'....the real battle is for the hearts and minds of the people, raised on a history of conquering rivers and taming wilderness. " Is the battle in N.Z. for the hearts and minds of the people who still believe in near limitless resources to be used for increased production, and ever increasing consumption? June Ritting.
|
The
following excerpts come from an article by Jim Yuskavitch for Trout,
