"Oldman River Dam Almost Finished But Opponents Continue to Fight"

BROCKET, Alta. - At the same time a federal panel began public hearings Wednesday into the environmental impact of the Oldman River dam, brown water was cascading over a concrete spillway on the project in southwestern Alberta.

The $350-million dam project, which is opposed by native and environmental groups, is over 90 per cent finished. Water has already backed up 18 kilometres behind the clay and earthen structure started in 1984.

But William Ross, a University of Calgary professor who heads the six-member federal panel, denied the hearings are a waste of time and taxpayers' money.

"It is my opinion we have the potential to make recommendations that are so sound that even the most disinterested person would feel the recommendations make good sense," he said Wednesday.

The dam is being built by the Alberta government to provide water for irrigation and drinking in the parched southwestern part of the province. Environmental groups say the dam will disturb wildlife habitat, and native groups say it will destroy sacred land.

The Alberta government, which has brushed off concerns about the project and fought federal attempts to delay construction, isn't participating in the hearings. Instead, on Wednesday it took reporters on a tour of the dam site, 175 kilometres south of Calgary.

Lorna Born With A Tooth of the Lonefighters Society called the dam "the biggest criminal activity happening."

Members of the Lonefighters Society, a group of militant Peigan opposed to the dam, stood in a drizzling rain waving placards outside the dam's fenced in confines.

Barry Zalmaowitz, a lawyer for the province, said Alberta believes the federal environmental review process "does not allow for this panel for constitutional and other reasons."

He noted the Supreme Court of Canada is expected to rule soon on the constitutionality of federal intervention in the project.