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Letters: No BC Hydro conspiracy

Conspiracy theories are more fun than facts says letter writer

BC Hydro claims electric power from the dam near Jordan River is really needed, IIRC it supplies 30 per cent of Vancouver Island’s power.

So where will it get electric power after The Big One hits here?

There was a desire to increase generating capacity up island, and schemes to pipe much natural gas to northern Vancouver Island for an LNG terminal – which theoretically could be used to generate electricity at peak demand times. (I know, seems odd when terminals can be built on the northern mainland, but there is surplus pipeline capacity to southwest B.C. due to the US now having much natural gas). But the population of Vancouver Island is growing. Solar and wind are of course very costly and require backup as they are intermittent.

Meanwhile, Rodney Nyberg claims in your December 24, 2014 issue that the dam near Jordan River withstood the last earthquake. Hmm – did I miss that there was a major earthquake near here since the dam was built? He mentions the big one in Alaska, but its ground effect this far away was a mere tremor. The several near Seattle and Olympia Washington in the past couple of decades were small, the only damage near them was to brick/stone buildings and the Boeing Field runway that was built on fill.

As for Nyberg’s speculation about BC Hydro’s motives, he should apply Occam’s razor – go for the simple answer, which is mere denseness. Oh, right, conspiracy theories are more fun.

Keith Sketchley

Saanich