Do containers really threaten our blueberries? I doubt it. I attended a Terminal 2 consultation session. Here is what I think I learned:
Their design seems conceptual; in some aspects non-existent. Terminal 2 would be five kilometres out on Roberts Bank where the issues, it seems to me, aren't Delta's. What would affect us is traffic and onshore construction. Here's what I learned of their onshore construction plans:
They would add a rail siding near Boundary Bay Airport, more tracks in a 60-metre wide strip between Arthur Drive and the start of the causeway, and they would widen Deltaport Way to four lanes. That seems firm, but there's also an "iffy" part.
They need an intermodal yard, which is where they load or unload containers from trains. Their design has the intermodal yard on the new terminal where ships are loaded and unloaded, which seems exactly where it should be. Functionally, I can't imagine it anywhere else.
But then they offer a concession to those concerned with construction in the marine environment; it could instead be on a widened causeway or ashore on farmland.
Seems to me a public relations maneuver, not an engineering design. Are they saying: "If marine construction really troubles you, we can use your farmland instead?"
When asked why not put it on the Tsawwassen First Nation's 300-plus acres of industrial land, they say that's the wrong place and the wrong shape - no further explanation available.
When asked where on Delta's farmland it would be, they haven't thought about that, but it might occupy less that 100 hectares (247 acres).
There was no mention of Ashcroft, but it seems to me that putting it 330 kilometres away from where it should be would be is an obvious non-starter, no matter how badly Ashcroft wants it and Delta doesn't.
If I am correct, we should put some reliance on Robin Silvester's assurance that taking farmland is their last resort. They plan to put the intermodal yard exactly where it should be; where containers are stored and loaded on and off ships. Only if they are beaten up by marine environment activists might it come ashore.
This outcome yields winners and losers. I don't know about marine environmental issues, or traffic, but the Tsawwassen First Nation, with their recently improved industrial land, seems the big loser.
Ashcroft will be again disappointed, but Delta, at least our farmland activists, should be overjoyed.
Ed Ries
