Editor:
Re: Chamber, port applaud crossing announcement, Oct. 3
It is disturbing to hear Port Metro Vancouver president and CEO Robin Silvester's comments regarding the replacement of the George Massey Tunnel.
He wants the tunnel removed so he can get bigger and deeper ships up the Fraser River to Fraser-Surrey Docks. It's the same argument put forward by the New Westminster Harbour Board over 50 years ago.
At the time of the construction of the tunnel, the navigation depths of the Fraser River at that location were 22.5 feet below low water over a width of 300 feet.
For future navigation the Department of Public Works specified the tunnel be built to allow for a depth of 31.5 feet over a width of 1,400 feet; 36.5 feet over a width of 1,000 feet and 40.75 feet over a width of 700 feet.
When the tunnel was built, it exceeded these requirements to allow for a depth at low water of 33 feet over a width of 1,400 feet and 42 feet over a width of 700 feet. This made the Fraser River stable channel deeper than navigable tidal rivers in the world at that time.
When my father, George Massey, enquired about the depths of 80,000-ton tankers at that time he was told their depth fully loaded was 43.5 feet. Let us remember the depth over the top of tunnel exceeded the depth of the river, so in order to bring an 80,000-ton tanker to New Westminster at low water the whole river would have had to have been deepened.
Let us not forget the Fraser River estuary is the greatest salmon bearing river in the world and was recently designated as a Ramsar site.
Port Metro Vancouver is showing the same callous disregard for the survival of the ecosystem that makes the Fraser River the greatest salmon bearing river in the world as it did with the development of the Roberts Bank superport.
Why would Port Metro Vancouver want the George Massey Tunnel removed unless it has a plan to further desecrate the Fraser River ecosystem? Is it to allow even deeper ships, like tankers, to its Fraser-Surrey Docks?
We cannot let this happen.
Douglas George Massey
