ST. JOHN'S -
UNESCO recently pulled World Heritage Site status from the Dresden Elbe Valley in Germany, highlighting the possibility of the same thing happening here if transmission lines are run through Gros Morne National Park.
The United Nations agency removed Dresden from the World Heritage List last week for building a four-lane bridge "in the heart of the cultural landscape," a UNESCO press release noted.
UNESCO said Dresden is only the second property ever to have been removed from the list.
Crown-owned Nalcor Energy unveiled plans earlier this year to run transmission lines for the proposed Lower Churchill project through Gros Morne.
The proposal would include a series of 40-plus-metre-high transmission towers through more than 60 kilometres of the park.
There is an alternative route around the park, but it is considered more expensive and more difficult from a technical standpoint.
The Gros Morne transmission plan generated opposition from environmental and tourism groups, along with Parks Canada, which must approve the project.
In February, Hospitality Newfoundland and Labrador (HNL) chairman Bruce Sparkes first raised the spectre of a Gros Morne losing its spot on the United Nations list.
"It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and it's been suggested that if you put this corridor down through it, it (may) lose the designation," he says.
"We believe Parks Canada is correct in opposing this."
He said at the time that HNL supports the Lower Churchill project, but not the Gros Morne transmission route.
HNL officials declined comment this week.
And Parks Canada, which oversees Gros Morne, did not return a message before deadline.
Provincial government tourism materials prominently tout Gros Morne's UNESCO status.
It was named to the World Heritage List in 1987.
The Department of Tourism steered inquiries to Natural Resources Minister Kathy Dunderdale.
Dunderdale wasn't available for an interview, and the department did not forward a statement, as planned, before deadline.
The environmental review process for Nalcor's Lower Churchill proposal is ongoing, and is expected to be completed in 2010.
Meanwhile, the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported that Dresden's UNESCO delisting sparked concerns that the loss could hurt tourism and downgrade the city's reputation as a cultural icon.
Dresden's citizens twice voted in favour of the bridge, Deutsche Welle reported, with the issue sparking bitter debate among citizens.
The Telegram
