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Technology Assessment and Nova Scotian Tidal Power Projects

  • Conference paper
Book cover Environmental Decisionmaking in a Transboundary Region

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes on Coastal and Estuarine Studies ((COASTAL,volume 20))

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Abstract

Proposals to construct and operate large-scale energy projects, particularly coastal and marine energy projects, tend to be controversial and highly politicized. Because technological change outpaces our understanding of the possible effects a new technology may have on the environment, and because scientific understanding about ecosystem dynamics is incomplete, development decisions are often based on limited information and are made in a climate of uncertainty. Decisions to proceed with (or delay) a project are, therefore, frequently the product of consensus-seeking with respect to the question: what constitutes politically acceptable levels of risk? “Until recently, evaluating the risks of technology has been considered a technical problem, not a political issue, a problem to be relegated to expertise, not to public debate. But controversies have increasingly politicized the issue of risk.”1

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Notes

  1. Dorothy Nelkin and Michael Pollak, “Consensus and Conflict Resolution: The Politics of Assessing Risk,” in Technological Risk,Meinoff Dierkes, Sam Edwards, Rob Coppock (eds.), Cambridge: Delgeschlager, Gunn and Hain, Publishers, Inc. (1980), pp. 65–75, at p. 65.

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  2. Ibid.,pp. 65–66. See also, G. Bruce Doern, The Peripheral Nature of Scientific and Technological Controversy in Federal Policy Formation. Science Council of Canada. Background Study 46 (1981).

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  3. See,for example, Liora Satter and Debra Slace, Public Inquiries in Canada. Science Council of Canada. Background Study No. 47 (1981); L. Graham Smith, “Alternative Mechanisms for Public Participation in Environmental Policy-Making,” Environments V. 14, No. 3 (1982) pp. 21–34; and John E. Carroll, Environmental Diplomacy: An Examination and a Prospective of Canadian-U.S. Transboundary Environmental Relations (1983).

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  4. See,for example, Northern Development and Technology Assessment Systems: A Study of Petroleum Development Programs in the Mackenzie Delta-Beaufort Sea Region and Arctic Islands,George R. Francis and Sally C. Lerner. Science Council of Canada. Background Study No. 34 (1976).

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  5. Dexter P. Cooper Inc. promoted plans for an international two-basin scheme using the tides of Passamaquoddy and Cobscook Bay; in 1935, the U.S. began construction of a facility on Cobscook Bay but suspended operations when project funding ceased. The governments of Canada and New Brunswick investigated a site at the mouths of the Petitecodiac and Memramcook Rivers in 1944, and the International Joint Commission investigated the costs of developing tidal power in Passamaquoddy Bay in 1956. The Atlantic Development Board sponsored surveys in the Shepody and Cumberland estuaries and Minas Basin from 1963 to 1966. See Atlantic Tidal Power Programming Board, Report, 1969: 9–10.

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  6. See Atlantic Tidal Power Programming Board, Report,1969: 28.

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  7. Ibid.,p. 159.

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  8. Ibid.,p. 170.

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  9. Fear Quebec Will Turn Tide Against Fundy Development,“ (Halifax) Mail-Star,April 29, 1971; ”Hydro-Quebec Could Undercut Tidal Power,“ (Halifax) Chronicle Herald,January 31, 1984.

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  10. Fundy Power: `Further Studies Necessary,’ “ (Halifax) Chronicle Herald, January 31, 1984.

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  11. Ottawa Agrees to Review of Tidal Study,“ (Halifax) Mail-Star,April 1, 1971.

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  12. Ibid.

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  13. Bay of Fundy Tidal Review Board, Preliminary Reassessment of the Feasibility of Tidal Power in the Bay of Fundy, Report, 1974: 11.

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  14. Bay of Fundy Tidal Review Board, Reassessment of Fundy Tidal Power (Report), 1977.

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  15. Ibid.,p. 385 (emphasis added).

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  16. Ibid.,p. 387.

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  17. Ibid.,p. 390.

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  18. Ibid., pp. 390–391.

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  19. Ibid.,p. 391.

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  20. Ibid.,pp. 387–389.

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  21. Ibid.,p. 393.

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  22. Ibid.,p. 404.

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  23. See Tidal Power Corporation. Fundy Tidal Power: Update ‘82 (1982).

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  24. More Funding for Tidal Power Studies,“ (Halifax) Chronicle Herald,May 24, 1984.

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  25. Alcan Studies Investor Interest in Fundy Tidal Power Project,“ (Halifax) Chronicle Herald,July 1, 1985.

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  26. Donald C. Gordon, Jr. and Alan R. Longhurst, “The Environmental Aspects of a Tidal Power Project in the Upper Reaches of the Bay of Fundy,” Marine Pollution Bulletin, v. 10 (1979), pp. 38–45.

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  27. Fundy Tidal Power and the Environment,“ Proceedings of a Workshop on the Environmental Implications of Fundy Tidal Power, Wolfville, N.S. (November 4–5, 1976), p. iii.

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  28. Information provided through interviews conducted by Peter N. Duinker with Dr. D.C. Gordon, Jr. (FESC Chairperson, 1977–82); Dr. G.R. Daborn (current chairperson, FESC), and Dr. F.J. Simpson (APCS chairperson), in the summer of 1983. A valuable compendium of information is available in Update of the Marine Environmental Consequences of Tidal Power Development in the Upper Reaches of the Bay of Fundy, Donald C. Gordon and Mike C. Dadswell (Eds.) Canadian Technical Report of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences - No. 1256 (1984).

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  29. See Regional Scientific Needs in Fundy Tidal Power Development,Report of a workshop held at the University of New Hampshire (November 20–21, 1983). Not all scientists share this view of modeling predictions, see Fundy Tidal Power Development: Preliminary Evaluation of its Environmental Consequences to Maine,P.F. Larsen and J.A. Topinka (eds.). A Report to the Maine State Planning Office by the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences (1984).

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  30. See G.F.D. Duff, “Numerical Modeling of Tides in the Bay of Fundy,” Tidal Power and Estuary Management, R.T. Severn, D. Dineley, L.E. Hawker ( Eds.) Bristol: Scientechnica (1979), pp. 93–98.

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  31. See Fundy Tidal Power Development: Preliminary Evaluation of its Environmental Consequences to Maine, supra note 29.

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  32. See Background Paper on the Proposed Bay of Fundy Tidal Power Project,prepared for the New England Governors’ Conference for First Annual Bilateral Symposium on New England Eastern Canadian Affairs (Providence, Rhode Island, May 24–25, 1984).

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  33. U.S. Senate 98th Congress, 1st Session. “The Effect of the Proposed Tidal Hydro-Electric Project in the Bay of Fundy,” Proceedings of a Hearing before the Committee on Environment and Public Works (Augusta, Maine, July 25, 1983). The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New England Division, sponsored a public meeting to discuss its activities (October 30–31 and November 1, 1984 at Rockport, Maine).

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  34. Tidal Power Experiment Agreement Today,“ Chronicle-Herald,January 29, 1980. By 1982, the cost of the project was approaching the $52 million mark.

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  35. Guidelines and Information Requirements for an Environmental Impact Assessment of the Annapolis Royal Tidal Power Station, Annapolis Royal, N.S.,“ Nova Scotia Dept. of the Environment, Environmental Assessment Division (August, 1979), File No. 1750-A3.

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  36. MARTEC Ltd., Annapolis Tidal Power Project: Environmental Impact Assessment, 1980, 5: 11.

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  37. Ibid.,p. 5–11-5:16.

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  38. Public Input First,“ Mirror February 13, 1980.

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  39. See“Guidelines and Information Requirements”, op. cit.

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  40. File Documents, Nova Scotia Department of the Environment, 1750-A3 and 1570–3 (April 11, 1980), and 1570–2 and 1750-A3 (June 11, 1980 ).

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  41. Voice Concern over Impact,“ Mirror May 7, 1980.

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  42. G. Bruce Doern. The Peripheral Nature of Scientific and Technological Controversy in Federal Policy Formation. Science Council of Canada. Background Study No. 46 (July, 1981 ), p. 88.

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  43. Fishermen Get Few Answers to Concerns About Fundy Power,“ Chronicle-Herald April 15, 1983.

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  44. Ibid.

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  45. Greater U.S. Input Needed on Fundy Effects — Daborn,“ (Halifax) Chronicle-Herald, June 1, 1984.

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  46. Environmental Politics May Kill Tidal Project,“ (Halifax) Chronicle-Herald September 11, 1985.

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  47. G.R. Daborn and M.W. Couley (Eds.), Energy Options for Atlantic Canada. Halifax: Formac Publishing Co.,Ltd in association with Acadia University Institute (1983).

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Authors
  1. Cynthia Lamson
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Marine Law Institute, University of Southern Maine, 246 Deering Avenue, 04102, Portland, Maine, USA

    Alison Rieser

  2. Complex Systems Research Center, University of New Hampshire, 03824, Durham, New Hampshire, USA

    Judith Spiller

  3. Ocean Studies Program, Dalhousie University, B3H 4H8, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

    David VanderZwaag

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© 1986 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Lamson, C. (1986). Technology Assessment and Nova Scotian Tidal Power Projects. In: Rieser, A., Spiller, J., VanderZwaag, D. (eds) Environmental Decisionmaking in a Transboundary Region. Lecture Notes on Coastal and Estuarine Studies, vol 20. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-1408-1_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-1408-1_1

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-387-96446-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4757-1408-1

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