A] 2.; The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, May 6, 1998 Mma Gov’t defends Alcan deal despite lawsuit filed by native band A COURT CHALLENGE isn’t §waying the province from ‘sticking to its 1997 deal vith Alcan on the Kemano Completion Pro-. ject. « The{Cheslatta band south of Bujns Lake is challeng- ing fhe legality of all licences and agreements granted Alcan right back to the 1949 Industrial Devel- opmest Act which first gave | the alminum company con- tral sof Nechako River waters to run through gener- ators 40 power its Kitimat smeltar, The! band names Alcan, the pyovincial government and federal government as defendants i in a statement of claim filed in Prince George Suprefue Court. In funouncing the suit Cheslatta Chief Marvin Charlie said the band needs the lawsuit to force specific comniitments in rehabilitat- ing he upper Nechako Rivers He also cited a lack of consultation i in reaching the agrecgicents in the first place." Provincial spokesman, Prince George North MLA Paul Ramsey, said the government is still analys- ing the statement of claim, but in the meantime he. stands by last year’s deal, “We {the provincial government) are committed io carrying through on the 1997 agreement, and that obviously includes provid- ing Alcan with the op- portunity to move ahead on a major expansion of its op- erations in British Colum- bia,”’ he added. ‘‘That is the goal.’ The 1997 deal saw Alcan receive an option for long term power. That was in return for sur- rending compensation claims caused when the pro- vince stopped its..$1 billion Kemano Completion Project when it was half-finished. Ramsey noted there are stil environmental concerns on the Nechako to be ad- dressed, but there is a $100 million fund, created by the province and Alcan, devoted to solving them, And while not everyone in the northwest will benefit from the construction of a new smelter, there is also a $15 million fund to kick Start economic development in those locations, Cheslatta policy advisor Mike Robertson noted flooding of the Murray- Chesiatta river system as a resultgof its use as the Nechako Reservoir spillway Our air was fair TERRACE’S AIR quality wasn’t great in March, but Burns Lake residents suf- fered from the worst air ever recorded in the Skeena region. Air quality in Burns Lake was good less than half of the time in March and was listed as “‘poor’? more than one-third of the time. There were also 131 exposure in- crements, a figure which Doug Johnson of the en- Virouncnt ministry calls **unprecedented.”’ Exposure increments are times when levels of inhal- able pollutants are high enough to cause noticeable negative health effects. Smithers’ air wasn't very good in March either, with 27 per cent of all hours listed as poor. Houston also had lousy air with poor quality 20 per cent of the line. Terrace’s air wasn’t nearly that bad in March, but it wasn’t great. There were 18 exposure increments, and the air here was listed as poor for three per cent of the month. When you can't breathe, nothing else mattérs | BRITISI{ COLUAIBIA LUNG ASSOCIATION 734-LUNG of 1-800-686-LUNG Paul Ramsey is a big concern. He added replacing it with a water release facility at the Keaney Dam would help fix thal problem, Ramsey said he believes the Cheslaita have every right to be concerned about environmental restoration of the upper river, but they should get invalved in the process in place. “I urge them to get in- volved with the advisory commiiltce being established for the environmental en- hancement fund,’? he added. “There will be ap- portunities for everyone to have their say on whether a cold water release facility Should be built, what it Should do and what other measures Should be taken.”’ Ramsey said the watershed council model has been used successfully elsewhere in the province. ‘It strikes me as strange thal we’ve got a court case about environmental enban- cement after we finally have a fund to enhance the en- vironment,’ he added. 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