On a farm tucked away off Stelly’s X Road in Central Saanich, sheep, chickens and turkeys roam free-range in a bid for tasty, healthy meat. The farmer, Dan Ireland [also a professional agrologist] is worried about his farming capabilities now that the BC Transmission Corporation is considering running a high-voltage power line through his land.

“They could physically take out of production 100 [linear] feet of land,” Ireland said. “We’ve got livelihoods at risk.”

The BCTC is seeking a way to connect lines on Wallace Drive to the Keating substation.

There are currently two transmission lines feeding the area: one at 138 kilovolts [kV] and the other at 230 kV. The 138 kV system is at capacity while the 230 kV is not. The plan is to add a new new 60 kV double-circuit transmission line from the Keating substation to the existing 60kV lines on Wallace Drive to the Sidney substation and de-energize the transmission lines along Wallace Drive from there to the Goward substation.

Originally the BCTC offered up four routes for the public to consider.

After public input, Ireland said, the residents were under the impression that Willow Way, a trail route between Keating X Road and Wallace Drive that runs just to the east of Brentwood Bay, had been deemed the best route for the line. Then in mid-August they got a letter offering a neighbourhood meeting two weeks later.

“We were advised by letter they were considering an additional option,” he said. The new route was east of the Willow Way route and cut through Maber Flats, dissecting the lower portion of his farm. “It was a complete surprise to us,” Ireland said.

The east Maber Flats route was identified by community members, said Chris Rathbone, public affairs for BCTC. That led to more community input, in the form of an open house last week.

“We need to make sure we’ve heard from them as much as we’ve heard from everybody else,” Rathbone said.

“We of course were focussing on the routes on either side of Maber Flats; it gave us an opportunity to hear from the community. We got some new ideas and some new things to look at,” said Rathbone of the open house. “There were some major agricultural concerns expressed about one of the routes … Those concerns are definitely valid.”

Ireland says the posts carrying the line would cause the first of many problems. “For us, trying to navigate farm equipment, we can’t do that,” Ireland said. But the effects are farther-reaching than simply avoiding posts, he added. Area farmers would lose the use of seven to nine acres, not just the strip with the poles and wires, Ireland asserts.

“I’ve worked with a lot of farming operations,” Ireland explained. “Dairy and hog operations have had production drops due to high voltage … it’s an unknown if we’re going to lose productivity.”

He also noted that the hydro company has regulations saying they can treat right-of-ways with herbicides.

“We do organic farming,” he explained. Herbicides on site would destroy any organic component of the farm.

Not wanting to simply be negative and not-in-my-backyard types, they offered up suggestions, Ireland said. That included using existing lines that carry power through the area. That was something they were told could not be done — then another engineer told Ireland at the most recent open house that it was possible.

“There’s a tremendous amount of mixed signals coming from [BCTC] employees,” Ireland said.

Judy Dobrowolski, a BCTC community relations coordinator, told Central Saanich council that the new route option came about after the public pointed out some problems with the Willow Way route.

Those concerns included environmental issues, as well as the presence of the golden nematode. But the same problems, and more, are also present in the Maber Flats farmland now under consideration, Ireland said.

As far as the nematodes go, “It [Willow Way] is class A,” Ireland explained. “We’re class B.” Which means the testing was done on land near Willow Way and nematodes were found, but the land adjacent could contain the pest, and must adhere to the same quarantines.

As well, scores of Canada geese stop over on Maber Flats.

“We have a huge flock of migratory birds,” Ireland said. “Why would you come over here and destroy farm land?”

He also noted that the land is so soft he simply pushes in fence posts, posts that the sheep and cattle easily knock over when rubbing up against them. It’s the same reason the land is used for free-ranging the livestock and poultry; it’s why there are no buildings on the land.

“To put these posts in here is going to be a challenge, to see how they do it in the first place,” Ireland said. They would also be under feet of water throughout the wet season, he pointed out.

“We’re frustrated because they’re proposing to impede livelihoods,” Ireland said. “Our future farm is at stake. We’ve got a real concern for our future.”

BCTC plans to do a thorough study based on what was heard at the open houses and is still hopeful to pin it down to one route in the next month.

“We haven’t written anything off,” Rathbone said. “A decision hasn’t been made yet. It would be premature to do that.”

reporter@peninsulanewsreview.com