By Roger Annis, June 1, 2013
A town hall meeting concerning the new, coal export terminal proposed for Surrey Docks on the Fraser River in the Vancouver region was held in New Westminster on May 30. It was hosted by several NDP MPs and MLAs. Below are several reports as well as some published comments by people who attended the meeting. (One of the commenters gives himself/herself the name ‘Not born yesterday.’)
Among the features at the public forum was the union of longshore workers shilling on behalf of the coal industry. As I have previously reported, across the international border, the Northwest Washington Central Labor Council is also supporting coal exports. There is considerable citizen opposition to the Gateway Pacific coal terminal that would see a massive, rail-fed export terminal built close to Bellingham, at Cherry Point.
Opposition to coal exports is also strong in Seattle.
A novelty in the Surrey Docks proposal is that the Port of Vancouver authority has been dodging its responsibility to examine the safety and environmental impact of the project. And soliciting of public views has been left in the hands of the consortium that wants to build the project!
New Westminster is the oldest part of Vancouver region. It is a suburban city of 65,000 that fronts the north arm of the Fraser River delta. Surrey Docks would be built on the south arm of the river, a few kilometers south of New Westminster. Coal export expansion is underway at the three existing export terminals in BC. Here are the figures in million metric tons of each terminal; the first figure is existing export tonnage, the second is tonnage when expansions are completed:
Westshore (Roberts Bank–Vancouver region): 29-33
Neptune (North Vancouver): 8-18
Ridley (Prince Rupert): 12-24
Surrey Docks (proposed): 8
New Westminster elected officials to host town hall meeting on proposed coal facility
Published on the website of NDP MP Fin Donnelly, Fri 24 May 2013
http://www.findonnelly.ca/node/538
NEW WESTMINSTER – New Westminster residents are invited to learn more about the proposed Fraser Surrey Docks direct transfer coal facility at a special Town Hall meeting on Thursday, May 30th at 7:00 p.m. at the Douglas College Theatre in New Westminster.
The Town Hall meeting will be hosted by Peter Julian, MP (Burnaby-New Westminster), Fin Donnelly, MP (New Westminster-Coquitlam-Port Moody), Judy Darcy, MLA-elect (New Westminster) and the City of New Westminster.
Representatives from Metro Vancouver, Fraser Health, the environmental community and Fraser Surrey Docks have been invited to participate. The Town Hall meeting will also be web broadcast live on New West TV. Viewers may access the web feed at www.newwest.tv and clicking on the COAL icon.
“This is an important issue for New Westminster, particularly for neighbourhoods like Westminster Quay and Queensborough. I’m glad that representatives from all three levels of government are coming together to hold this important consultation,” said Julian.
“People in the community have concerns about the proposed coal facility,” said Donnelly. “I believe it’s important to provide a forum where these concerns can be properly addressed.”
“The lack of public consultation to date has been very disappointing,” added Darcy. “People of New Westminster have serious questions about this project that must be addressed.”
“Clearly this issue concerns many local residents and it’s one we’ve been working on for some time,” said New Westminster Mayor Wayne Wright. “By partnering with New Westminster’s MLA-elect and MPs to host this Town Hall meeting, we are providing citizens an opportunity to voice their concerns.”
Coal facility town hall packs New Westminster auditorium
By Renee Bernard, News 1130, Friday, May 31, 2013
New Westminster BC – The prospect of tonnes of coal being transferred onto barges near their neighbourhood had a couple of hundred people pack a New Westminster auditorium Thursday night.
The panel consisted of reps from Metro Vancouver, Port Metro Vancouver, Fraser Surrey Docks, and Fraser Health. People were invited to ask questions, but many with concerns about the project, and specifically about the potential for coal dust, came away skeptical.
Fraser Surrey Docks is issuing reassurances the facility along the Fraser River will be relatively dust free. It insists the coal transferring will happen under a covered structure, and the coal itself will be sprayed to minimize dust.
Mark Gordienko, president of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union told the crowd local workers have been handling coal safely for 40 years. He says dust is a non-issue.
“The coal will be sprayed. There will be a minimal amount of dust. The facility itself is closed in. It will be well-ventilated. The whole system is enclosed until it gets onto the barges. It will be sprayed again once it travels on the barges.”
Another man echoed the fears of others, who suspect the project is just the tip of the iceberg.
“They are going to start with two million metric tonnes per year, then they will bump it up to eight million, which is the current limit for the facility permitted by Port Metro Vancouver. And then they’ll ask for a greater capacity. That’s going to be a major coal terminal unless we stop it now,” he says.
The plans call for American coal to be transferred from trains to barges at the docks on the Fraser, before it’s ultimately shipped to Asia.
Metro Vancouver, which must approve the air permit for the project, will tackle the issue in two weeks.
Related stories:
* New Westminster against coal expansion
* Local coal protestors team up with US counterparts
Comments on the above article(3):
Paul says:
What’s not to like about this proposal? More trains. More diesel exhaust. More noise all around. More ships belching out fumes. Mountains of flammable low-grade coal. More jobs involving the handling of carcinogenic substances within sealed buildings which are also well-ventilated. (Huh? Someone please explain how a building can be closed and well-ventilated at the same time), And dust nobody needs to worry their poor little heads about, ’cause it ain’t that bad. Meanwhile back in China, as their government pokes its head through its soot-filled air, they’re now beginning to realize they need to cut back on coal-burning, both because of the excessive air pollution it causes, and the cost of building and running coal plants as compared to other energy-producing technologies. Everybody is waking up except investors in coal. Your market demand is about to collapse in the coming years, so why are we even entertaining the expansion of anymore infrastructure dedicated to this insanity?
May 31, 2013 at 1:58 pm
steven faraher-amidon says:
While it was refreshing that Fraser Surrey Docks CEO Jeff Scott showed up, the information presented was overwhelming in suggesting there is more than meets the eye here, with the lack of public accountability and involvement in the process starkly present in many comments. Jeff Scott did his best to confirm that all is safe in FSD’s hands, all is right with the world, all the while comments by co-panelists from Fraser Health Authority and Metro Vancouver more than suggested otherwise. If you want to a fuller picture on what we are facing with this onslaught which would increase coal exports by hundreds of thousands of tonnes, come to the next public forum at the Delta Golf Course, June 12th, 7 pm, presented by the Western Canada Wilderness Committee and Burns Bog Conservation Society. If not now, when; If not us, whom?
May 31, 2013 at 1:46 pm
Not Born Yesterday says:
I attended an “open house” on the FSD Coal Proposal and was shocked to see the coal dust referred to as nothing more than an “irritant” like any other dust. The last time I heard, household dust could not cause black lung. The lack of honest recognition of the health risks of placing a coal terminal so close to residential areas (unlike Delta Port which is miles from any homes) just fuels the concerns that there is a hidden agenda involving future 24/7/365 coal movement in and out of the FSD. This has to be stopped now.
May 31, 2013 at 6:48 am
