When Port Metro Vancouver released an artist's rendering of its proposed Terminal 2 earlier this month, it brought into focus what is very likely in store for Roberts Bank.
As much as there are public consultations and environmental reviews, if the powers that be deem this expansion a necessity, it's hard to believe it won't become a reality.
Call me pessimistic, but I'm dubious whether there's much we can do about the creation of a second container terminal, although I do believe there's hope when it comes to managing its impacts.
For about a quarter of a century, from the time it opened in 1970 until the mid1990s, the Roberts Bank superport didn't impose much of a footprint on this area.
Coal trains would arrive full and leave empty, and beyond the occasional concern over coal dust finding its way onto patio furniture, the operation at the edge of town was largely a non-factor.
That all changed when the vacant pods became a container terminal and trucks, literally thousands of them, began traversing our roads. Some of the best farmland around was sacrificed for infrastructure improvements as the port began imposing its will on this area.
The distinct possibility of a second three-berth container terminal means those impacts will only intensify - if we let them. But what if we insist - and those calling the shots agree - to eschew the 1960s-era thinking and we actually move into the new millennium?
I think most would agree that expropriating 4,000 acres of prime farmland to support a port is backward thinking, and although it's not happening on the scale envisioned a half-century ago, there has been a significant intrusion that will only increase along with the size of the port.
There has to be greater sensitivity shown to our internationally-acclaimed environment, to our fertile farmland and to ensure the port's neighbouring communities continue to be desired places to live.
There have to be ways - short haul rail and river barges to existing industrial areas - to move containers that put less strain on the adjacent land and transportation network.
I realize government has invested in a billion-dollar highway, but that can't be the only answer. We have to be more creative in minimizing the impact an industrial operation of this magnitude has on its surroundings.
We'll never return to the coal port-only days, but that era did show that a port in your back yard didn't have to compromise your quality of life.
