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Locals are uniformly outraged at the offer, even as they see the value of their homes being wiped out by the news.

“For just about everybody around here it’s not a money thing; we don’t want to move, fix your dam,” said Doug Harvey, speaking to local television.

Mr. Hicks noted camping at Jordan River Regional Park was being shut down only four years after the municipal government spent $9.9-million to buy the land.

“If they’re going to ask us to have no overnight camping, they should buy our park, simple as that,” he said. “They sterilized Jordan River, and they’re the ones responsible for this.”

News of the looming dam collapse has also scuttled plans to turn the park over to the nearby Pacheedaht First Nation, who were to build a campground and interpretative centre.

Said Mr. Hicks, “That’s all gone, too, with BC Hydro’s announcement that they’ll all be dead.”

While the utility claims it cannot fix the dam, it has acknowledged there are ways the structure could be prevented from collapsing in an earthquake.

‘I guess the bottom line is that they would all die’

BC Hydro could simply lower the water in the reservoir, but it said this would cause an electricity shortfall that could cost as much as $200-million to fix.

The dam could also be decommissioned, but this would also be “highly costly” and would risk flooding homes with spillover from an unregulated Jordan River.

The utility’s dramatic plans for the area were fuelled by an alarming seismic study released this month showing the Jordan River dam, built in 1911, sits atop one of the most vulnerable parts of British Columbia and possibly the country.