Dear Editor:
Let’s plan for a moratorium (stop) on any housing development on the North Shore until there are good options for the third crossing, rapid transit or train.
A powerful lobby of involved developers will come up with an acceptable solution in no time.
Good plans for where to offload some of Vancouver port activities should already be in place. The additional tankers will choke the already busy port in no time. The crude oil and diluted bitumen transport should be one of the first to move out of the Vancouver area.
To navigate big tankers through two narrows and populated areas will put millions of people and all local sea life at risk.
Thanks to good planning, the port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands became one of the biggest and most successful ports of the world.
The port was moved 50 kilometres northwest out of Rotterdam city (towards the North Sea) to an artificial island safely built on the seashore. Big transport ships and tankers there are not going through sea narrows to populated areas anymore.
Another good plan for safer transport would be to process the bitumen into synthetic crude right in place in Alberta.
Nobody wants diluted bitumen in their own back or front yards for its toxicity including its diluents and no ability of removing it when it is on the bottom of the sea or rivers due to waves, tides and silt actions.
Bede Kosman
North Vancouver
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