Risk of pipeline expansion and shipping too great
On Oct. 19 I was fortunate to see the beautiful film The Living Salish Sea at Duncan United Church, and hear the filmmaker Sarama speak about his years of diving and filming to show us how precious are these waters on our doorstep.
I was moved to write the following letter to Prime Minister Trudeau.
Dear Prime Minister:
I live on the shores of the Salish Sea, and recently watched a beautiful documentary film by Sarama, showing the treasures and fragility of our waters here.
In the film, you are seen quoting the safety of the pipeline expansion and assuring us you would not support it, if it were not safe. But you have no assurance that the shipping will be safe, and it will be increased by hundreds of tankers. As we have seen from the recent spill in calm waters in Vancouver, the cleanup took hours to happen, and when the shipping company was brought to court, they did not show up, and have not paid a cent towards the costs of cleaning. The tankers are registered in dubious places and have no accountability.
Bitumen is said to float, but mixed with silt, it sinks. The Fraser River is famous for the nourishing silt deposits it sends into the sea!
The Narrows bridges have been hit twice in the past, and are only navigable at the highest tides, with extreme caution needed.
The lethal extra storage tanks are to be built close to Simon Fraser university and suburbia, and we are in an earthquake zone!
Our Salish Sea is going to become one of the largest fossil fuel exporters on the planet.
With all the pressure you are under to support this madness, perhaps all we can hope for is that you will show your children this film Youtube, so they can see what our sea was like when they were young. I hope you have a chance to watch it too, and wish you the strength to do what is right.
P. Foot
Duncan