Comox Valley Environmental Council

Local Environmental Impact of Energy Projects.

The next Comox Valley Environmental Council meeting will be held February 18, 2009, at 7:00 pm at the Florence Filberg Centre, 411 Anderton Avenue, Courtenay. The featured speaker will be the noted Campbell River environmentalist, John Stewart, who will discuss the environmental impact and footprint of power generation, using local systems as a case study.

John has an extremely well rounded background in environmental resource issues and the local area. He started with the department of the Environment, was involved in the early stages of the fish farm development in BC and had many opportunities to live and work in Asia and beyond as a Fisheries consultant. In the North island he was Quality Control for CANFOR, responsible for evaluating the quality of the timber and harvesting methods. He has recently been involved with the local mining companies and has thus followed the path of many islanders before him by being involved in Logging, Fishing, and Mining.

The major sources of Power on the island have been, and continue to be Hydroelectric and Coal. Both of these have played significant roles in the development and landscape of the island. Historically coal was a driving force for most of the development throughout the mid island and played a major role in shaping the Comox Valley. Hydro Power has in a large part shaped much of the topography and ecosystems throughout the mid island by the creation of dams and diversions of watersheds.

The Comox Valley Environmental Council is an 18 year old ‘not for profit Society’ which acts as an umbrella organization for 17 local environmental organizations and local Municipal and Regional representatives. CVEC meets about seven times a year, meetings are open to the public, are generally with a small group of people, and often include a short presentation of some local issue. We are seeking a bit more public visibility, and will probably have a few ‘larger audience, general topic’ meetings such as this one each year. The formal CVEC meeting will follow John’s presentation.

The April CVEC meeting will be April 15, 7:00 pm at the Comox Valley Regional District Boardroom, Comox Road. There will be a short presentation on the Longlands Golf Site Redevelopment project.

Please come out and join us for these important environmental topics, and to learn more about CVEC and our member organizations. For more information on CVEC, please visit our website on .