Leaders in Fort Chipewyan are going to court to protect the Peace-Athabasca Delta. The Athabasca Chipewyan and Mikisew Cree First Nations filed a lawsuit in federal court yesterday, to challenge approval of the Site C Dam Project on the Peace River in B.C.
“There is too much at stake in the Delta to ignore potential effects of yet another dam on the Peace River,” says MCFN Chief Steve Courtoreille in a news release. “Governments needed to take a cautious approach and ensure they understood effects to the Delta and on the Mikisew before they approved Site C. Unfortunately, they chose not to do so.”
They say dams have already dropped water levels, and if that continues there’s more threats to wildlife, vegetation and members’ access to the area.
“When they built the Bennett Dam, no one thought about how the Delta might be affected. No one thought about how First Nations might be affected. Once the dam was built, it was too late to address our concerns. We are worried that history is repeating with Site C,” states ACFN Chief Allan Adam.
The dam would flood 5,550 hectares of land. At a cost of $7.9 billion, the B.C. Hydro project would generate power for an estimate 450,000 homes. The project got environmental approval in October.
