_ Terrace Review — Wednesday, June 26, 1991 A3

| Kemano winds down pending decision on wate
f= The flow of workers out of the on the boring machine. Carpenters ation project. The group that stream of the reservoir, and the fromthe Kenney Dam.
i" Kemano Completion Project job are currently removing scaffolding fought the original agreement, the EARP will probably focus on There has been no indication

. sites continues this week as the in the powerhouse excavation, after Rivers Defense Coalition, is based Alcan’s intention to cut the amount from the federal government as to
( project moves toward a virtual which that part of the project will in the Nechako watershed down- of water released into the river when the EARP will begin.

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shut-down. Alcan Aluminum has
decided to halt work on the $1
billion hydroelectric scheme until
it’s clear how much water the
company will have rights to.

A recent federal court decision
ordered an Environmental Assess-
ment and Review Process for
KCP, striking down an agreement
Alcan and the federal government
signed in 1987. The agreement
bypassed the EARP. Alcan
announced last week it will appeal
the ruling and seek to have the
agreement reinstated.

Alcan public affairs spokesman

_ Allan Hewitson said late last week

about 240 of the 800 workers at
the project camp had been laid off
and sent home. As the project
winds down, Hewitson said, an
average of 40 to 50 workers will
be laid off cach day for the next
several days. Each component of
the massive project is being fin-
ished to a state at which it is safe
and easily re-started when work
begins again, he said.

Most of the workers laid off to
date are employees of PCL Con-
struction and Paramount, Hewitson
said, with a smaller number. of
AL, Sims and Sons workers leav-
ing and some loggers who were
cutting in the Kildala River valley.
Work on the tunnel is expected to
conclude early this week when the
borer breaks through into the
powerhouse. Hewitson said some
of the tunnel workers may be kept
on to do maintenance procedures

3228 Kalum Street

be mothbalied.

Marine engineering and drilling
at West Tahtsa Reach, where the
second tunnel intake is being built,
will continue, Hewitson said.

"We're not shutting down, but
we're investing as little as pos-
sible. It’s being done in a manner
that will allow us to re-start when
the court decision is made," he
said. Catering and transportation
for the project will continue on a
"scaled-down" level.

Hewitson declined to speculate
on the number of workers that will
be left at the Kemano camps once
the process is complete.

Alcan is expected to file this
week for a slay of execution to
temporarily block the court order
while their appeal is being heard in
the federal appeals court. "We’re
still confident we have a strong
case," Hewitson commented. The
earliest the appeal could be heard,
he said, is in October when the
court draws up its schedule of
cases. |

Alcan has been spending between
$17 million and $20 million per
month on the project up to now.
Hewitson said about half the orig-
inal project budget — $400 million
-—- has been spent and about $600
million is committed to date.

Until a decision to overturn the ~

federal court ruling is handed

down or, if the appealfails, ‘the ~

EARP is finished, Alcan cannot
know how much water it will be

able to use for the hydro gener- —

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