John Hart Generating Station Replacement Project

Client

SNC Lavalin and Aecon

Location

Campbell River, British Columbia, Canada

Project Duration

February 2014 – ongoing

Background

The John Hart Generating Station (JHT Facility) was a hydroelectric facility located on the Campbell River adjacent to Elk Falls Provincial Park, near the city of Campbell River, British Columbia (BC). The JHT Facility operated from 1947 to 2018 and formed part of a 3-station Strathcona-Ladore-John Hart cascading hydroelectric development on the Campbell River.

Due to the age of the JHT Facility, a number of components required replacement, including the woodstave penstocks and the powerhouse generating equipment. BC Hydro implemented the John Hart Generating Station Replacement Project (the Project) to replace the deteriorating components of the JHT Facility and improve on remaining components.

The main Project components included: a new water intake in the existing concrete main dam leading to a shaft and power tunnel to convey power flows; an environmental flow release facility and low level outlet; an underground powerhouse complex; and a new tailrace and outlet structure to return the power flow to Campbell River at a point close to the old JHT powerhouse. The Project also included the decommissioning and removal of replaced JHT Facility components, such as the generating equipment, the superstructure of the existing powerhouse, and existing woodstave penstocks and steel pipelines. The existing intake has remained in place as a dam structure, but the existing intake gates were decommissioned and the intake bays were plugged with concrete.

Services Provided

As overall environmental managers for the design-build and decommissioning phases of the Project, Hatfield provided the Environmental Director, on-site Environmental Manager and Environmental Coordinator, as well as a range of environmental subject area specialists. The core responsibilities of Hatfield’s environmental team included:

• Overall environmental direction and management, including liaison with environmental representatives from BC Hydro, the Independent Environmental Monitor, and regulatory agencies;
• Preparation of a comprehensive Construction, Commissioning, Decommissioning and Operations Environmental Management Plans, Environmental Work Plans and a range of other environmental management documents;
• Development and presentation environmental training to support worker orientation and other Project-specific requirements;
• Acquisition of environmental permits, licenses, approvals and authorizations;
• Developing and implementing a number of surveys and monitoring studies in support of Project environmental management;
• Environmental monitoring and coordination to ensure compliance with the Project environmental obligations, contract, regulations, and conditions of permits, licenses, approvals and authorizations;
• Participation in routine surveillance and process audits as required by our corporate ISO9001:2015 quality management system, and the Project quality system; and
• Subcontracting the Independent Project Environmental Monitor (Mainstream Biological) on behalf of BC Hydro and SNC-Lavalin, and the Contaminated Sites Professional team (SLR Consulting) for the contaminated soils management phase of decommissioning.