Editor:
It would appear Terminal 2 proponents are trying to pit farmland preservationist against Fraser River estuary preservationists over the issue of the placement of the intermodal yard where they unload containers from trains. However, the real issue is whether Terminal 2 should be constructed at all.
It must be remembered the Fraser River stretches thousands of miles inland to Prince George and thousands of years ago the municipalities of Richmond, South Surrey and Delta were all under water and part of the marshland biodiversity that was teeming with fish, wildlife and wildfowl.
In 1895 permanent dikes were built that eventually encompassed some 42,000 acres for agricultural purposes. Then the George Massey Tunnel was built that made Delta available for residential and industrial development.
Railways, ferry terminals and a port were built, all threatening the ecosystem of the Fraser River and the ability of the farmer to co-exist.
Both the Tsawwassen ferry terminal and the Roberts Bank port were built with little regard for the existing value of the Fraser River estuary and the continued existence as the greatest salmon-bearing river in the world.
They failed in the design of the causeways to both the terminal and port that allowed for the natural flow of the tide and river that carries the sediment and nutrients so valuable to ecosystem at the mouth of Fraser and to our neighbours to the south. The crab and shellfish fishery has never been the same.
The causeways should have been bridged sufficiently to allow for this continued flow, and still can. This should be the price you have to pay if you do not want to invade this ecologically sensitive estuary. Anywhere else in the world this would have been done, bearing in mind this invaluable ecosystem.
Where was the Department of Fisheries and Oceans when this was allowed to happen? All along the foreshore of the Fraser River, anyone who owns a foreshore lease lives under the strictest conditions that don't allow them to disturb the marshlands and eelgrass that exist around their float homes, industrial buildings and the docks and ramps that lead to them.
The docks and ramps must be designed to allow for sunlight to reach the marshland below them.
Much of the Ladner waterfront property that is yet to developed is considered to be in the red zone and cannot be developed, unless equal marshlands are created elsewhere.
Dredging of the areas near these marshlands and eelgrass is subject to close scrutiny. All this is done to protect the ecosystem necessary for the survival of the migrating salmon.
Why was the same policy not followed for Roberts Bank?
Doug Massey
