Memorandum: to file
Date: Tuesday, 21 June 1994
* Canadian hydro project undermines Boldt *
By Dana Wagg, Writer-researcher, Cheslatta Nation
(Researcher: John Hummel, Cheslatta Nation)
It appears that the treaty fishing rights of Washington State Indian
Tribes, guaranteed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1979, are seriously
undermined by a Canadian hydorelectric project known as Kemano 2. Those
treaty rights were confirmed by U.S. Federal Court Judge George Boldt in
1974 and upheld five years later by the U.S. Supreme Court. Notably,
Boldt directed Washington State to abide by the terms of treaties with
Washington State Indian tribes. But the Boldt decision also confirmed
that treaty rights include the right to a clean and healthy fishery
habitat, said U.S. Senator Dan Evans (Washington).
The Boldt decision gave Washington tribes the legal right to 50 per cent
of the sathe six percent they had been
peritted to harvest. Washington State tribes challenged the state's
authority to regulate the Native fishery and won a landmark ruling in
the case known as _U.S. vs. Washington_. "The treaty right to fish and
the right of the fish to survive here were unquestionably now the law of
the land," said Evans.
After two years of intensively researching Alcan's Kemano projects, it
seems to me that Kemano 2 undermines the treaty rights of Washington
tribes to a clean and healthy fishery habitat since the project
threatens 20 per cent of the Fraser River sockeye run, a run which is
harvested by at least nine tribes in Washington. Already, one U.S.
organization, American Rivers, has reacted strongly to the threat posed
by Kemano 2. In April 1994, American Rivers named the Fraser to their
Top 25 list of threatened/endangered North American rivers. the question
of whther Kemano 2 really does undermine the treaty rights of American
tribes and whether they could force their government to prepare an
Environmental Impact Statement would have to be referred to a lawyer.
We also have in our files hundreds of pages of documents leaked to us
and obtained under Access to Information legislation, expressing the
scientific opinion of scientists and biologists with the federal
Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), which show the overwhelming
threat that Kemano 2 poses to the Fraser River fishery.
One of those scientists is Dr. Don Alderdice, who is now retired after
working for DFO for 40 years. An expert on fish habitat, Alderdice had
this to say on Jan. 18, 1994 to CBC-TV's award-winning investigative
show, _the fifth estate_. He was asked by reporter Victor Malarek, "What
will happen if the Kemano Completion Project (K2) goes ahead?"
Alderdice replied,"Devastation of the salmon fisheries of British
Columbia. We'll lose, or are likely to lose, about 19 per cent of the
Upper Fraser salmon runs."
_____________
(disclaimer) The above material is posted here as part of my personal
interest and
involvement. It does not represent the mandate, views or activities of
the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada.
-- Jamie