Bala Generating Station

Construction equipment will be in existing parking locations near the dam as shown on the map below. Some traffic disruption is expected (no more than two hours per day) but one lane of Muskoka Road 169 will always be open and traffic control staff will be present. The crane for all lifting, including the removal of stoplogs and installation of the new gates and associated structures will be located at the south end of the parking area beside the Margaret Burgess Park, which is owned by the District of Muskoka (an occupation permit will be obtained). Delivery trucks will pull in front of the Bala United Church to be unloaded. Equipment will be staged for a short time near the crane in the parking lot prior to being installed.

The work is anticipated to end by October 17. If further work is required past this date, SRLP will ensure that all work is stopped during the festival weekend. The crane from the site will also be removed prior to the festival to ensure no visual impact or physical obstruction to the festival.

The Bala GS is monitored 24/7 and notifications are sent immediately when there is an unplanned shutdown (e.g., due to a grid outage). Unplanned flow interruptions require a fast response to re-establish the flow. Currently, within the first hour of an unplanned shutdown, the operator notifies Ontario Power Generation (OPG) and if the operator cannot restart the unit, then the operator contacts a logging team (which is on-call 24/7) to remove stoplogs from the Bala North Dam. Re-establishing flow with stoplogs currently takes between one (1) and four (4) hours on average but can take longer under frost conditions.

Bala GS flow interruptions impact water levels in the upstream Lake Muskoka and in the downstream Moon River. The installation of two new sluice gates in bays #3 and #4 in the Bala North Dam will significantly decrease the time required to re-establish flow after a trip of the North Bala GS, as fully opening the gates will take approximately 7 minutes (if additional flow is needed, the logging team will be engaged for the remaining bays). The new gates will substantially mitigate the impacts of a plant trip to reservoir water level changes and downstream flows. Further, the new gates will be heated and powered by the grid, along with backup power from the existing permanent emergency generator at the North Bala GS, and, therefore, will be operable and reliable during frost conditions and power outages.

Bays #3 and #4 will be isolated using the maintenance gains prior to the gates being installed. The stoplogs from the sluices will be removed and the existing monorail operating the stoplogs will also be removed from above the bays. The gates will be inserted into the existing service gains (where the stoplogs are currently located in the dam) without any modifications.  New rack and pinion hoists will be connected mechanically to the sluice gates and electrically powered. Once the gates are installed, they will be tested. During construction, the dam will maintain sufficient conveyance capacity to pass a 100-year fall flood event even with the two bays unavailable.

Prior to the gates being installed, work will be done to repair the concrete sills at the base of bays #3, 4 and 5, which are leaking. Repairs will include breaking the sill concrete to pull out the embedded stoplog, installing new steel sills and pouring concrete to re-embed the sills.

A Construction Environmental Management Plan has been prepared and reviewed by the MNRF and will be followed by the construction contractors. A 3^rd party independent environmental monitor will be present to inspect erosion control structures, for dewatering of the bays, and for overall environmental compliance.

The project is being conducted under Section 16 of the Lakes and Rivers Improvement Act (LRIA) and a work permit is issued by the MNRF. A Request for Review was submitted to Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) and a Letter of Advice was received. The potential to cause negative impacts to the environment has been evaluated and avoidance measures applied to minimize impacts. This includes the use of a crane to swing equipment into the work area and working in the area between the maintenance gains and the stoplogs. This has reduced the footprint of the project, and the use of the maintenance gains has replaced the need for cofferdams. A Construction Environmental Management Plan, Care of Water Plan, and specific environmental protection plans for each phase of work have been prepared and an environmental monitor will be onsite.

A Fisheries Technical Report has been prepared to assess potential impacts to fish and fish habitat from the proposed replacement of stoplogs with sluice gates. The report also considers the results of flow and walleye spawning suitability modeling and determined that fish and fish habitat would not be negatively affected.

The Bala Falls Dam Operating Plan and the Muskoka River Watershed Management Plan will require minor modifications to update them with the sluice gate information. This will be coordinated with the MNRF and is expected to follow established procedures.

For questions/comments on the upcoming construction activities, please contact the Project Manager, Mussawar Ahmad at mahmad@potentiarenewables.com

For questions/comments on the daily operations of the Bala GS, please contact the Facility Manager, Gord Kuzniak at gkuzniak@potentiarenewables.com

Notice of Completion for the Project (under O.Reg. 116/01) was declared on October 9, 2009 at which time the Environmental Screening Review/Report (ESRR) was made available to agencies, aboriginal communities, stakeholders and the public for comments. The mandated 30 day review was extended voluntarily by Swift River to 44 days. It has been broken down into individual sections and appendices to facilitate downloading over the internet.

REPORT

• Sections 1 to 3
• Sections 4 to 13
• Appendix A
• Appendix B
• Appendix C1-C7
• Appendix C8
• Appendix D1-D14
• Appendix D15-D23
• Appendix E

HERITAGE

• Heritage Report
• Heritage Conservation District Study

ADENDUMS

• Environmental Screening Review Report – Addendum
• Ministry of Environment’s Decision on Addendum

OTHER APPROVALS

• Building Permit
• Transport Canada Navigable Waters
• Environmental Compliance Approval
• Public Safety Measures Plan