Current News and Notices

New Place for the Newz!

Important Notice:

Most current news and notices are now being posted at the WaterWalk Blog, which is part of this site and accessed here:

For the forseeable future, time sensitive messages will be posted here at the "index" page of Eloise's website. (This is because of Google's withdrawal of FTP publishing support - which hasn't been dealt with here in WaterWalk World. The blog is still there in a static version, all published articles and comments are still accessible to the public)

Monday, May 17, 2010

a focused and intimate group of us is coming together here in the Kootenays to take part in an international effort for healing and prayers for the world's waters. I think of you as a person holding focus and grounding for the earth in a good way, and if you are available, I would love if you could participate. We are coordinating with an event for Planetary Waters that we learned about from Marshall Jack at the last 13 Indigenous Grandmother's Council (info included below). I have included the email/links below about what is happening officially around the world for May 18th.

Thus far we have confirmations for ceremony from Ananda (prayer/sound), Celesttina (song), Claire and Jean (song, music), me (guided visualization, crystals), Terence (giving us water water from Machu Picchu), Miriam/Adonia (chant), several other young people, children and a few carpools from the valley& Nelson. If you're interested, could you offer a simple prayer for the waters? We are suggesting folks bring a picnic lunch to share if you wish to stay to break bread together,*picnic afterwards 1-2pm.*

You are asked to* bring your intentions* for our local waters& the waters of the world, and to*bring any offerings, crystals, waters from the world, and prayers for these waters.* Any crystals need to be in the river waters by 12:38pm PST May 18th, when there will be a raising of energies at 8 lakes on 6 continents around the world to create a nine-pointed star ( the earth is the ninth point on the star)... each lake has crystals in them, several have had Kootenay Lake crystals distributed to them. Among many dedicated groups gathering around the globe will be Marshall Jack and his group near Galveston, Texas to offer healing to the Gulf of Mexico.

Anybody that is interested in joining us would certainly be welcome. In the coming days I'll be sending more info., including a way to participate through meditation if you and other friends of yours are not able to be there in person. While I truly hope you can come , any offerings you may have are welcome for this water ceremony.

Much Love and Light, Jo Ann

**once you reach the beach, we'll be either visible to the far right - OR - we'll be at the far end of the beach on the left past the volley ball net*

Canada Day - July 1, 2009

Recently there were meetings in Kaslo, Meadow Creek and Invemere regarding the proposed Glacier/Howser Creek IPP project. Eloise's first sketches of the meetings in Meadow Creek and Kaslo are already posted on the WaterWalk Blog, and more information and photos will be published about these meetings on the blog and elsewhere on the site soon.

The Kaslo meeting was extremely heavily attended, the gym crammed with more people than the entire population of Kaslo, partly because AXOR and the Environmental Assessment folks refused repeated entreaties to hold a meeting on the issue in the most centrally located community in Nelson. Obviously the people in Nelson are also concerned and hundreds of Nelson residents made the one hour trip up Kootenay Lake to attend the closest meeting they could attend to express their oppostion to this project for environmental and economic reasons.

Pitt River is relevant because at least there the local citizens and non-locals who treasure the wildlife values of this river were successful in either changing or stopping this development. It isn't clear yet if the voices of over a thousand people were heard in Kaslo, but this will be an indication whether or not democracy is just a fantasy or actually a form of government that we enjoy.

It is clear that the only people who want this project to go ahead are those who either will, or have been perhaps deluded into thinking that they will, make money from its implementation. It is clear that the project will not address or provide a solution to any real or imaginary energy shortage for the residents of British Columbia. There is no question that the environmental costs would be far more than any real or imaginary value of the project. As long as this same water flows over the Duncan Dam during freshet without going through non-existent (none installed) turbines, there is no sane reason to destroy three or four valleys and streams merely to line the pockets of a few people in Montreal and on Wall Street!

January 5, 2009

There was originally going to be a hearing in Nelson today, but that has been postponed until some future date.

"The court date has been postponed. Kenyon (McGee) says that Axor agreed to stage the court case in Nelson and so they don't have to appear just set a date for the next court case which will be about them suing the Grabowsky's."

The re-organization of this website is progressing. There are some new features/pages to tell you about.

• A new blog, incorporated into the website - called WaterWalk
• Though there is a growing list of links at WaterWalk Blog - there is also a Links page where more information can be included regarding the links.
• Like the Links page, there will also be another place to find links to videos, at the Videos Page. Videos will also be labelled as they come up in the Blog. There are many powerful and informative videos and even feature length films being made about issues around water - for drinking, agriculture and energy. We will be providing links to them here as we discover them and where to find them.

December 9, 2008

Yesterday was court day in Nelson regarding some matters involving the Injunction to End the Blockade of Glacier Creek road and perhaps the gag-order on details regarding this ongoing assault on Glacier Creek, Howser Creek, the Grabowskys and the once publically owned and shared hydraulic power resources of British Columbia and the habitat of the actual original inhabitants, namely grizzly bears, elk, mountain sheep and other and large and often threatened mammals in the North American Empire of Greed above all other values. Hopefully in a day or two there will be news to report about what, if anything, happened yesterday in the old Rattenbury designed jewel of a Courthouse in Nelson, B.C. There were indications that some people were going to demonstrate in front of the courthouse their support of the Grabowskys and their opposition to the fire sale sell off of our resources.

Meadow Creek Meeting of the Chosen

TODAY’S PRESS RELEASE
NOVEMBER 24, 2008
PURCELL ALLIANCE FOR WILDERNESS
ARGENTA, BC V0G 1B0

AXOR’S PRIVATE MEETING FOR PRIVATE POWER

On Tuesday many residents of the Lardeau Valley were invited by phone to a meeting two days later on Thursday, November 20th at the Lardeau Valley Hall in Meadow Creek hosted by Purcell Green Power (AXOR Group, Inc.), the company proposing to develop the controversial Glacier/Howser hydroelectric project. No public notices or announcements were given.

Residents were lured to the meeting with the promise of job applications, an attractive prospect in an area with high unemployment due to the economic downturn. At the meeting, however, the only paper concerning jobs was a skills survey of residents with no job applications in sight.

Project manager Simon Gourdeau of Montreal announced that there would be 290 person years of employment over two years in constructing the project. What he failed to mention was that earlier this year the Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) approved the project’s Terms of Reference which expected 450 person years of employment. This is a 35% drop in job numbers.

The Terms of Reference also stated 3-4 permanent jobs. At the meeting Gourdeau now claimed 6 permanent jobs. When pressed for the details of these jobs he admitted that the systems were entirely automated and that someone only needed to go to the site occasionally. He said that two people were needed to be on call 24/7 for each installation totaling 4 “operators.” Then there is a need for a manager to do the scheduling and an office assistant to write cheques. Local resident Gary Diers and spokesperson for the Purcell Alliance for Wilderness states, “I expect that one person could do four of these jobs simultaneously with one hand tied behind his/her back. What is becoming clear is that these few jobs may be long term but certainly not full time.”

Although advertising job applications, AXOR does not even have an approved project. In fact, their final application was rejected this summer and no new application has been submitted. In addition, Gourdeau admitted that the bulk of the construction work would not begin until 2010 and that AXOR does not directly hire labour. They use contractors to get the work done. He expected that union labour would be hired and a local resident pointed out that local workers were generally not union workers. A resident of Lardeau pointed out that much of the work is actually mining work and that training might be necessary for local hiring. Gourdeau seemed little interested in training anyone local for more than 2 or 3 weeks on the job for a position. While expressing interest in hiring locally, the project manager gave no guarantees and appeared reluctant to go the extra mile. Diers surmises that “the whole event was a public relations exercise preying on unemployed workers. The entire project is regionally very unpopular and AXOR appears to be desperately attempting to garner public support from this sector –somewhat unsuccessfully.”

While the final application has not been resubmitted, Gourdeau updated the attendees on some of the new information. The amount of waste rock muck created from the tunneling was last stated in the 2007 project description as 243,165 cubic meters. This has now increased 60% to 390,000 cubic meters. There are few prospects for use of this waste so that most of it is expected to be dumped along the creeks. The project cost has escalated from $240 million to $295 million. Despite past assurances to the contrary, both class 8 and class 9 forest will be leveled. The nameplate capacity of the project has been established at 99.5 MW. Gourdeau now estimates that the EAO application review process, which requires formal public meetings, will take place in early 2009. This is dependent on the EAO’s acceptance of their next final application.

Rafe Mair comes to the Lardeau

Proponents of public power and the environment will give their perspective on the proposed Glacier/Howser project at the Lardeau Valley Hall on December 3rd at 7pm. Rafe Mair is leading a Save Our Rivers tour in the West Kootenay with additional stops in Nelson, Nakusp, Kaslo and Rossland. The public is warmly invited.

Contact:

Gary Diers
250-366-4455

The Valley Voice is on the Case

In spite of not being on the Lardeau valley "phone tree" intrepid Valley Voice reporter Jan McMurray traveled over the Selkirks to attend the meeting described above. Their coverage appears on the front page of the December 3, 2008 issue and will soon be available online here.

Longtime Kaslo resident and electrical wizard, Don Scarlett, also has a letter published in the Voices from the Valley section of this issue that succinctly exposes AXOR Corp's base strategy to divide and conquer local residents to satisfy their lust for green power money.

......Axor's strategy may work if we're just country bumpkins as they appear to believe. But it is tragic to watch the money-making dreams of a Montreal corporation drive up unrealistic expectations in a community already hard-hit economically. And it may take a long time to heal the wounds if Axor creates divisions among the North Kootenay Lake communities for its own benefit.

Don Scarlett
Kaslo