There is no bedrock at Site C. The dam is being built “on the geological equivalent of billiard balls,” according to Harry Swain, former chair of the Joint Review Panel on Site C. Engineers have warned for decades that the unstable, landslide-prone shale at the site is unsuited for a dam which has to withstand tremendous pressure from the impounded water. In addition, the L-shaped dam design itself is novel and untested. In February 2021 the Horgan government announced its decision to continue building Site C. This will require a major redesign of the critical structures to support the proposed earthfill dam.

The instability of shale layers at the dam site is compounded by seismic risk. Site C is located in a seismically active area that can become critically stressed during fracking operations, which are dotted across the valley. There are several fracking sites in close proximity to Site C and the other two dams on the Peace River. According to The Narwhal, more than 10,000 earthquakes occurred in the wider area in 2017 and 2018, including one that shook the Site C dam construction site, forcing workers to evacuate.

Here's an excellent summary of Site C risks by investigative journalist Ben Parfitt.

The B.C. Utilities Commission found in 2017 that the province could obtain power equivalent to that generated by the Site C dam from the province's existing hydroelectric infrastructure, at a savings of billions of dollars. If additional power were needed, alternative energy sources such as wind and geothermal could provide similar benefits to ratepayers as the Site C project, with an equal or lower cost. 

That was in 2017. Since then, the dam costs have ballooned. A recent article by Harry Swain, former chair of the Joint Review Panel on Site C, quotes estimates that the total costs could be between $12.5 and $14 billion. That is, assuming the geological conditions will allow safe completion at all.

Treaty No. 8 was originally negotiated at Lesser Slave Lake in 1899 between the Crown and a number of Indigenous groups. The treaty was ratified by the Crown in 1900. The ancestors of present-day West Moberly adhered to the treaty in 1914.

Prior to being reduced to writing (in English) the treaty was negotiated and concluded orally. The Crown made several oral promises to induce the Indigenous peoples into joining the treaty, including that the “the treaty would not lead to any forced interference with their mode of life.” The Supreme Court of Canada has confirmed several times that these oral promises are part of the treaty.

Under Treaty No. 8 the Crown acquired a power to “take up” land for settlement, mining or other purposes. However, Treaty No. 8 guarantees that Treaty Nations would always be able to continue hunting, fishing, trapping and gathering throughout the treaty territory. The Crown’s right to take up land cannot override the obligation to safeguard these rights and avoid “forced interference” with West Moberly’s traditional mode of life.

West Moberly First Nation was suing British Columbia, Canada, and BC Hydro. The civil claim alleged that Site C, in combination with the previous two dams on the Peace River, is an unjustified infringement of West Moberly rights under Treaty No. 8. Site C and the previous two dams will poison fish with methylmercury, devastate caribou populations, and desecrate sacred burial grounds, ancient gathering places, and other spiritual areas, all of which constitutes infringements of the rights guaranteed under Treaty No. 8. 

The civil action relied on section 35 of Canada’s Constitution Act, 1982, which “recognizes and affirms” pre-existing Aboriginal and Treaty rights. Under Treaty No. 8, the Crown has an obligation to manage and protect the treaty lands to ensure that West Moberly is able to continue meaningfully exercising its treaty rights.

West Moberly alleged that the treaty does not allow the Crown to use the “taking up” power to construct large hydroelectric dams which permanently destroy large tracts of treaty lands vital to West Moberly. The Peace and its tributaries are fundamental to West Moberly’s very identity, and central to the seasonal round of hunting, fishing, ceremony and knowledge transfer to future generations.

West Moberly also alleged that the damming of the Peace infringes West Moberly’s Aboriginal rights to carry out religious and spiritual practices, which is contrary to protections for religious expression under Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and that it is contrary to Canada’s international obligations under the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The cumulative impact of the W.A.C. Bennett Dam, Peace Canyon Dam, and Site C Dam would be to turn the Peace into a series of reservoirs, destroying the unique cultural and ecological character of the Peace and severing the physical, practical, cultural, and spiritual connection West Moberly has with the Peace.

If Site C is completed, the ability of West Moberly members to practice their seasonal round and mode of life will be fundamentally and forcibly interfered with. Further, there is a chance that Site C will catastrophically alter the Peace through ecological disaster, as landslides or dam failure could be caused by earthquakes induced by nearby fracking operations.

Site C has more significant adverse environmental effects than any project ever examined in the history of Canada’s Environmental Assessment Act, according to UBC researcher Karen Bakker. This includes the destruction of boreal forest, destruction of critical habitat of more than 100 vulnerable species, methylmercury contamination of fish species, and downstream impacts threatening the Peace Athabasca Delta and Wood Buffalo National Park. 

Learn more about Site C’s impacts on farmland and food security, the seismic threats of nearby fracking operations, and the methane emissions associated with dams and reservoirs.