PREI’s Water Licenses – Extensive Control Over Local Watersheds

Powell River Energy Inc (PREI) holds water licenses for two major watersheds – Powell and Lois - in the qathet area. These licenses cover four rivers – Powell, Theodosia, Horseshoe, and Lois – and six lakes – Powell, Goat, Lois, Khartoum, Horseshoe, and Nanton. (BC government’s water license database https://j200.gov.bc.ca/pub/ams/Default.aspx?PossePresentation=AMSPublic&PosseObjectDef=o_ATIS_DocumentSearch&PosseMenuName=WS_Main , search under Client Name “Powell River Energy”)

You can see how the company dominates much of the water in the qathet area on a map of the water bodies covered by its licenses.

PREI’s licenses allow storage of:

  • 628,330 acre-feet/year in the Powell watershed

  • 467,960 acre-feet/year in the Lois watershed
    = 1,126,290 acre-feet/year total — the equivalent of more than 366 billion gallons of water.

One acre-foot = the volume needed to cover an acre foot of land in one foot of water (325,851 gallons) so the amount of water affected is huge.

Land Use Rights and Flooding Privileges

In addition to water use, licenses grant PREI the right to flood significant areas of Crown land:

  • 514.97 acres in the Powell/Goat watershed (Permit 22791)

  • 3,824 acres in the Lois/Khartoum watershed (Permit 22793)

  • 263 acres in the Horseshoe/Nanton watershed (Permit 22795)
    = Over 7 square miles of Crown land reserved for PREI’s hydro infrastructure and reservoirs.

PREI’s rights to use Crown land have economic implications. Land reserved for flooding cannot generate revenue from other potential uses like timber harvesting.

Massive Water Diversion Rights

PREI is licensed to divert large volumes of water:

  • 3,630 cubic feet/second from Powell River

  • 2,000 cfs from Theodosia River

  • 1,297 cfs from Lois River

PREI’s Theodosia license allows it to divert up to 80% of the river’s flow.
(Vancouver Sun, April 23, 1999)

Possible Conflict with Tla’amin Treaty

Some of the land attached to PREI/Brookfield’s water licenses appears to fall within the boundaries of Tla’amin Nation Treaty lands. According to a letter Hegus John Hackett wrote on January 28, 2022 to the BC Utilities Commission, the boundary of Treaty land “has the effect of calling into question the legal validity of Permits to Occupy Crown Land (PCL) 22791 and 22792 currently used by Evolugen and Powell River Energy Inc…”

How long do PREI/Brookfield’s water licenses last?

A legal memo prepared for ED4BC by the Environmental Law Centre that analyzed PREI’s water licenses states that: “Unlike contemporary water licences for hydropower purposes, these licences have no expiry date.”(p. 3, “Amending Water License for Fish and Communities”, Environmental Law Centre, March 2025)

Water licenses can be reviewed by the provincial Water Controller (Section 23, Water Sustainability Act) and reductions in the rate of diversion and storage can be ordered to take into account factors such as climate change that may decrease the overall amount of water available. However, these reviews can only be done thirty years after the Water Sustainability Act was implemented in 2016, meaning not before 2046.

Water Use Plans

The provincial Water Comptroller can require development of a Water Use Plan that balances power generation needs with environmental considerations in a dam operator’s management of water flows.

BC Hydro has Water Use Plans for its dams that:

  • Maintain minimum flow requirements especially during spawning seasons

  • Implement "ramping rate" restrictions - restrictions on how rapidly water levels change

Other measures that BC Hydro has implemented - ones that are not undertaken by PREI - include:

  • Installing and maintaining fish passage facilities

  • Improving fish habitat by adding nutrients and implementing downstream enhancement projects such as gravel beds

BC Hydro has a dedicated program - The Fish and Wildlife Compensation Program - “to conserve and enhance fish and wildlife in watersheds impacted by BC Hydro dams.” For 2025-2026, $9.2 million was approved for 72 restoration projects. https://fwcp.ca/home.html

PREI has a program with the Tla'amin Nation to address some of the harm to fish habitat from its dam on the Theodosia River. In response to concerns raised about its management of the Powell reservoir, PREI representatives said they promote safe uses and work with Fisheries and Oceans Canada on protecting fish. ("Lake levels a concern for qathet-based organization", The Peak, April 3, 2025)

Watershed Sustainability Plans

These plans are provided for under the Water Sustainability Act. They can be initiated by the province to assist in addressing conflicts between water users, conflicts between the needs of water users and environmental flow needs, risks to water quality or aquatic ecosystem health, or to identify restoration measures. They may include recommended changes to existing water licenses.

This map attached to PREI’s water licenses for Lois/Khartoum lakes shows the extensive area it is allowed to flood.

ed4bc@shaw.ca

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