Editor:
We seem addicted to angst.
We incessantly agonize over feared negative outcomes rather than proactively engineer solutions to avoid them. The threat of Deltaport's Terminal 2 expansion will torment us for at least a decade ... if we let it. Why not solve it now?
Port Metro Vancouver will build Terminal 2 when anticipated container volumes materialize, but says it wishes to minimize its impact. The Tsawwassen First Nation has improved industrial land ready for leases it needs for future income. Delta has ALR land that's being farmed and we don't want it taken by PMV for port expansion.
TFN needs the port's industries. Delta doesn't. Let's not suffer years of "Farms not Ports" meetings and signs. Delta must take the initiative; get PMV and TFN to agree now that Terminal 2 industrial facilities will be on TFN's land, not Delta's.
Delta may have the catalyst essential to this deal.
No matter where they are located, the port's industrial facilities will need infrastructure for wastewater disposal. Unless someone is willing to pay for a new sewer plant, the only disposal option is Delta's sewer connection to the Annacis Island plant.
The winter daily peak flow of South Delta's effluent when combined with the landfill's leachate and projected through 2041 leaves no spare capacity for new port facilities. But if TFN's industrial wastewater disposal needs were modest and stored during hours of peak demand, could off-peak capacity be found to accommodate Terminal 2 industries on TFN lands?
Could Delta's farmland be saved by a bit of kindness toward a neighbour in dire need? Delta should show some initiative and find out.
Ed Ries
