The B.C. government gave its approval for a $6.6-billion massive hydroelectric dam on the Peace River this week. The controversial announcement comes nearly 40 years after the dam was first proposed.

The Peace is part of Canada's historic cross-sountry trade route and the Peace River Valley is rich in both wildlife and agricultural lands, but portions of the river have already been spoiled by hydroelectric development.

The upper Peace is beseiged by two dams, including the enormous W.A.C. Bennet Dam, which flooded the valley with a 250-kilometre-long reservoir when completed in 1968. But the middle and lower Peace remained relatively untouched, until now.

The new Site C mega-dam will be "an important part of B.C.'s economic and ecological future, and we are ready to take it on" said Premier Gordon Campbell in a speech delivered from the ramparts of the W.A.C. Bennet Dam on Monday. The premier continued that the approval ushers in the third stage of the project—consultation with First Nations and detailed design work.

Independent federal and provincial environmental assessments and stakeholder consultations must still be conducted, and BC Hydro will be releasing a mitigation plan for "unavoidable harmful effects."

While the BC government is gung-ho for Site C, the mega-project has been called "misguided" by the Sierra Club, one of the province's largest environmental organizations. As well, the Council of Treaty 8 Chiefs, representing First Nations in the Peace region, says the dam along with existing and pending resource extraction operations will cause irrecoverable damage to fish, wildlife and local agriculture.

The project's regulatory review phase is expected to take about two years, and Site C could be producing 900 megawatts of power—enough for half a million homes—by 2020, according to the government statement.

"We need all the energy we can create in B.C. and there is no better way we can do that than here at Site C on the Peace River," said Campbell.

The proposed dam is to be located about seven kilometres southwest of Fort St. John, and will flood 83 kilometres and 5,400 hectares of the fertile valley between Hudson's Hope and Fort St. John.

At lease part of the government's statement brought good news for envirnmentalists in the province:

"For many years, nine other sites have been available for consideration of large-scale hydroelectric storage dam projects, including two on the Peace River system. Although these sites have never been part of BC Hydro's plan, they have remained legal options for consideration," said the statement.

"The new clean energy act will change this. It will enshrine in law B.C.'s historic Two Rivers Policy by prohibiting future development of large scale hydroelectric storage dam projects on all river systems in British Columbia, such as the Liard River system. It will also preclude further dams on the Peace River system other than Site C," it said.

Image Credit: BC Hydro

Read more about the Peace and four other threatened classic Canadian rivers in "Canoe Routes be Dammed" in the upcoming issue of Canoeroots magazine, on newsstands May 1st.