OF HYDROPOWER AND
STREAMS
A tale of run-of-river hydropower facilities and their
possible impacts on fish populations
The impacts of ‘run-of-river’ hydropower on the physical and ecological condition of rivers
Anderson et al, 2014 (Water and Environment Journal)
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IPCC, 2014
Clean Energy Act


93% electricity in BC will be from renewable
sources
Decrease greenhouse gas emissions
 2020:
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(Library of Parliament, 2010)
<33% than emissions 2007
From left to right: KidHydro, Circuit, KidWind, KidSolar and KidKinetic
(Created by Michael Arquin)
KidHydro!!
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Summary
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What is run-of-river hydropower (ROR)?
Impacts of dams vs. ROR
Evidence of impacts
Mitigation opportunities
Landscape planning
High-Head Schemes
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Gower et al., 2012
Large Dams
Run-of-River
(Reviewed from Alexandra, Neal and Emily)
(Anderson et al., 2014)
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Large ecosystem
Altered flow
Altered thermal regime
Barriers
Alterations to long-term
sediment flow (Yang et al, 2006)
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Smaller ecosystem
Semi-natural flow
Natural thermal regime
Barriers
Alterations to sediment
flow (Csiki & Rhoads, 2013)
“Environmentally friendly”

(Abbasi & Abbasi, 2011)
International Energy Agency
 “…depending
on best practices and effective site
planning”
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Impact/kWhr
 ROR
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typically smaller, less power generated
No Consensus on Effects
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Decrease in fish #
No effect on fish community
There was an effect on community
Decreased biomass
Shift from adult to juvenile fish
Smaller fish upstream
Barrier/delay for fish migration
(Anderson et al., 2014)
No Consensus on Effects
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Fish data for 10 streams
2
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dams had negative impacts
Upstream: Decrease in adult density, but increase in juvenile density
Decrease abundance of salmon
ESSA Independent review (Conners et al., 2014)
 Likely


effects in BC
Upstream: entrainment; loss of lotic habitat
Diversion: altered sediment flow; decreased habitat; fast ramping rates
 No
evidence of impacts on salmon abundance
 Evidence
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(Robson et al., 2011)
of decreased growth and rearing success
Why no consensus??
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Poor monitoring design
 No
design at all
 No control reach
 No before/after comparison
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(Anderson et al., 2014; Conners et al., 2014;
Robson et al, 2011)
Mitigation
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(Anderson et al., 2014)
Instream flow requirements
Fish passes and screens
Retrofit old dams
 More
loticity (concentrate water removal)
 Sediment
 Increase
flow, organic matter
installation of fish ladder
FISH CANNON
Fish goes in
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Fish goes out
DFO Requirements
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(Province of British Columbia, 2014)
Minimum instream flow for fish and fish habitat
ROR above anadromous salmon or endangered
species habitat
Water increase/decrease don’t cause stranding
Entrainment isn’t possible
More research and planning
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(Anderson et al., 2014)
Research on ROR
 Baseline
data
 BACI designs
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Better understanding of ecosystem processes
Cumulative impacts of multiple schemes
et al., 2011;
Framework for planning landscape level (Jaccard
Finer and Jenkins, 2012)
$66/MWh
$447/MWh
$1095/MWh
$2752/MWh
$8527/MWh
Existing RoR
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SFU, unpublished data
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Gower et al. 2012
Species occurrence
Areas where
=agree/conflict with
management priorities
+
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ROR footprint
Minimize
Overlap with
Salmon
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N=67
Minimize
Overlap with
High Angler
Value
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N=41
Minimize
Overlap with
Species at Risk
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N=42
Minimize Cost
of Energy
N=37
5500GWh/yr
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Optimize all
N=21
2200GWh/yr
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What now?
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Shift to renewables
ROR may have impacts
 Research
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lacking
Landscape planning needed
Discussion
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Do you think it is ethical/responsible to develop this
technology without much ecological knowledge?
Large
dams
RoR
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Discussion
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What are some
advantages/disadvantages
of landscape development
approach?
Discussion
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Knowing that everything
moves downstream, how do
we feel about sacrificing a
portion of streams at the
headwaters?
Discussion
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Which is better?
Large dam
RoR
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Discussion
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How does region play into
considerations for risks
involved in ROR
implementation?
References
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Abbasi, T., Abbasi, S. 2011. Small hydro and the environmental implications of its extensive utilization.
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 15: 2134 – 2143
Anderson, D., Moggridge, H., Warren, P. and Shucksmith, J. 2014. The impacts of ‘run-of-river’ hydropower
on the physical and ecological condition of rivers. Water and Environment Journal (Early view). DOI:
10.111/wej.12101
Caudill, C., Keefer, M., Clabough, T., Maughton, G., Burke, B., and Peery, C. 2013. Indirect effects of
impoundment on migrating fish: Temperature gradients in fish ladders slow dam passage by adult chinook
salmon and steelhead. PlosOne.\ 8 (12): e85586
Conners, B., Marmorek, D., Olson, E., Hall, A., de la Cueva Bueno, P., Bensen, A., Bryan, K., Perrin, C.,
Parkinson, E., Abraham, D., Alexander, C., Murray, C., Smith, R., Grieg, L., and Farrell, G. 2014.
Independent review of run-of-river hydroelectric projects and their impacts on salmonid species in British
Columbia. 157 pages + xiv.
Csiki, S., and Rhoads, B. 2014. Influence of four run-of-river dams on channel morphology and sediment
channel morphology and sediment characteristics in Illinois, USA. Geomorphology 206: 214 – 229.
Finer, M. and Jenkins, C. (2012). Proliferation of hydroelectric dams in the Andean Amazon and imlications
for Andes-Amazon connectivity. PLoS ONE 7(4): e35126
References
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Gower, T., Rosenberger, A., Peatt, A., and Hill, A. 2012. Tamed rivers: A guide to river diversion hydropower
in British Columbia. Prepared for Watershed Watch Salmon Society. 64 pages.
IPCC, 2014. Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II, and III to the
Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Core Writing Team, R. K.
Paschauri and L.A. Meyer (eds.)]. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland, 151 pages.
Jaccard, M., Melton, N., Nyboer, J. 2011. Institutions and processes for scaling up renewables: Run-of-river
hydropower in British Columbia. Energy Policy 39: 4042 – 4050
Library of Parliament, 2010. Bill 17: Clean Energy Act. 1 st reading, 2nd session. Ottawa, Parliament of
Canada. https://www.leg.bc.ca/39th2nd/1st_read/gov17-1.htm#section2
Province of British Columbia, 2014. Clean energy production in B.C.: An inter-agency guidebook for project
development. www.for.gov.bc.ca/Land_Tenures/documents/publications/DPIR.pdf
Robson, A., Cowx, I., and Harvey, J. 2011. Impact of run-of-river hydro-schemes upon fish populations. Final
report. SNIFFER WFD114, Edinburgh, Scotland.
Yang, Z., Wang, H., Saito, Y., Milliman, J., Xu, K., Qiao, S., and Shi, G. 2006. Dam impacts on the
Changjiang (Tangtze) River sediment discharge to the sea: The past 55 years and after the Three Gorges
Dam. Water Resources Research 42 (4): 1 – 10