2 Terrace Review — Wednesday, October 12, 1988» ~ Power exports, PCB's, Indian . land claims and the decentraliza- tion of services were just some of the predictable issues dealt with by B.C.. Hydro chairman Larry Bell during a recent dinner meeting in Terrace, but Hydro’s new direction in purchasing elec- tricity showed a definite change '- in policy for the giant utility. - by Tod Strachan Hydro policy, as explained by Bell, means an end to megapro- jects, like the proposal to dam the Stikine River system — at least for this century. Instead, purchasing power from large ‘hydro’ electric producers like Alcan as well as many private citizens with small generating systems. may be the wave of the future. Bell admitted that these smaller systems had to be ‘‘pret- ty’ special’ developments” to compete successfully, but he ad- ded that a “special deal”? had been devised for producers generating less than five megawatts of power. It will allow anyone interested to sell their excess power to the pro- vince. In responding to questions on other concerns, Bell defended the move of some Terrace hydro jobs to Prince George by saying that. the company is reducing costs in every way possible. He explained that the shift in job locations was necessary in order to keep pace with today’s technology and simply made good business sense. He added that Stewart would be one of the next communities to experience ms power to the U.S., Bell explain- ed that the.U.S. doesn’t have a power shortage but rather an ef- ficiency problem — our power is cheaper. He argued that energy About 16 Lakelse Lake residents attended a public hear- ing last week to express their views on a new development proposal at Mount Layton Hot Springs. The property under discussion consists of two lots whole because the real competi- tion for the. U.S. energy market exports are not only good for the province but for the country asa - comes from Alberta gas, not the grounds. He added that the development won't use the en-. tire piece of land, and it was planned to leave a 100 to 15 meter buffer zone on the nor- thern and western boundaries _ for the benefit of Lakelse Lake which are presently zoned Rural,-: residents. owned by and bordering on the northern boundary .of the Mount Layton development, and an adjacent section of crown land which is presently designated as park land. According to architect Alex Inselberg, who described the development on behalf of Hot Springs owner Bert Orleans, the new development would contain a gas bar/laundromat, a 200-space recreational vehicle park, three ball fields and rodeo Weather lows from 4 to 8. ; Lo report: Oct.3 18 6 — nil Oct.3-Oct.9 _ Oct.4 17. & O08 mm Forecast: Unsettled . rain weatherhasreturnedtothe Oct.5 16 10 0.2mm area with showers on rain Wednesday, Sunny Thurs- Oct.6 . 177 7 © ail ‘day, and showers Friday. Oct-7. 15 9 1.2mm Daytime highs will range Gg 477 rain rom 12 to . and overnight Oct.9 7 5 tt Residents generally reacted , with guarded approval and re- ' quested more authority to con- trot future development before any rezoning takes place. The first speaker however, Kolbjorn Bide, went even further by say- ing commercial development has a “negative and degrading ef- fect”? on adjoining residential property. He said there is already enough commercial development at the lake. “I. don’t see why you would even Date Hi the loss of some jobs with the — Me - completion of the Stewart hydro line. The new line will be monitored from Prince George and the days of maintaining the old diesel generating plant will - be gone forever. - Also, in commenting on the . Stewart project, Bell said that Indian land claims are a provin- cial and federal problem and Hydro can only follow govern- ment policy. He added,. however, that B.C,- Hydro is delighted with the acceptance of the power line right-of-way clearing contracts by the Kit- wancool and Nisga’a natives, - and said the land claims issue is * million not expected to cause any delay. When asked: about the PCB problem, Bell suggested that B.C. Hydro has the situation under control. He explained that all equipment containing PCB’s has now been labeled, or if easily accessed by the public, removed. In addition, he said that B.C. Hydro has spent over $12 to. build ‘‘secure’’ storage facilities and has also worked with Ontario Hydro to develop a process through which ‘small concentrations of PCB’s can be removed from transformer oil, He said that by using this pro- ‘cess. most PCB's could be removed from the environment _-in about three to four years but added that equipment heavier coricentrations of the “chemical were stitl a problem. with “We're trying some exotics such ‘as bacteria processes,”’ he said, ‘sbut there have been no results etn On . the issue , of exporting "ARIES Oct.23-Nov. 21 tight. SAGITTARIUS Nov. 22-Dec. 21 ; you've been CAPRICORN Dec. 22-Jan. 19 freedom. Mar.21-Apr.i9 ; alertto opportunity. TAURUS Apr.20-May 20 GEMINI | May 21-Sune20 vee experience. _ CANCER June2i-July22 group asso