Editor:
Re: Prince Rupert not good option, letter to the editor, Nov. 16
I am unclear why someone with Arthur David Serry's evident background and experience would want to disparage the port of Prince Rupert. However, it appears Serry has got his facts wrong.
First he contends Prince Rupert has to blast down 200 feet deep of sheer rock. This is not the case. Prince Rupert will start its container port expansion in 2012 and the northern expansion will not require any blasting whatsoever.
The southern expansion, which will follow later, requires some blasting but nothing significant - and simply to create infill.
Certainly this is nothing close to the magnitude of dredging and infill that a second terminal out on Roberts Bank will require.
The current Prince Rupert port has a capacity of close to
700,000 TEUs and once the phase two expansion is complete, it will handle two million TEUs.
Second, Serry contends Prince Rupert is isolated for two weeks every winter by landslides and by fog. This is also untrue and misleading.
The Prince Rupert port operations are not disrupted for two weeks as Serry claims. Ships are not delayed as he contends.
Prince Rupert deals with winter as well as any of the ports on the B.C. West Coast and is no more susceptible to landslides than the truck and train routes that the Vancouver area ports use for eastbound traffic.
Indeed, the rail route through the Rogers Pass (that Deltaport and others use) has suffered from landslides as has Highway 1. In fact there are avalanche warnings along that very route this week.
Not only that but the rail line out of Prince Rupert is a much easier traverse over the Rockies and unlike the Fraser Canyon and Rogers Pass, is not as capacity constrained. In fact, the Fraser Canyon rail route used by Port Metro
Vancouver rail traffic is basically at capacity now.
There are, of course, many other reasons that favour Prince Rupert as a gateway to Asia. Not only is it two sailing days closer to key Asian markets but, unlike Deltaport, it is a natural port in a sheltered harbour that is ice-free year round.
Deltaport, on the other hand, is an artificial port jutting out into Georgia Strait and as we have seen recently is very exposed to winter storms. Not only that but the approaches to Deltaport are difficult and congested.
Vessels approaching Roberts Bank from Juan de Fuca Straight have to thread their way through a maze of islands in Georgia Strait, some with narrow passes subject to tidal rips.
Often these marine passes are congested with other traffic, some large and some small. This may include B.C. Ferries as well as a host of pleasure craft, to say nothing of marine creatures such as the endangered orcas.
Whatever the reason Serry has for promoting Deltaport over Prince Rupert, what we should be focusing on is how best to satisfy Canada's trading needs in a sustainable manner that respects our environment and the communities in which we live.
It is clear when we take the balanced view that when we include Prince Rupert's future capacity along with that of the Vancouver area ports there is no need for a second container terminal on Roberts
Bank.
Roger Emsley
Executive Director
Against Port Expansion Community Group
