Watch out for BIG
TRUCKS & cars at certain times of the day
SOUTH FRASER PERIMETER ROAD
One of the biggest projects
advancing along the shore is the new South Fraser Perimeter Road,
which critics say will bulldoze critical habitat and threaten the
hydrology of Burns Bog.
The worst environmental
disaster waiting to happen is the South Fraser Perimeter Road in
Delta using up 249 acres of farmland, combined with the Spetifore
Farm development, about 100 acres for rail expansion and the loss
of 2,600 acres of farmland for Delta Port development. In total,
more than 3,500 acres of the best farmland in the world will be
lost.
The South Fraser Perimeter
Road Project (SFPR) - a truck highway , approximately 40km long,
will be a new four-lane, 80 km/hr route along the south side of the
Fraser River.
The SFPR will extend from
Deltaport Way in Southwest Delta to 176th Street (Hwy 15) in
Surrey, with connections to Highway 1, 91, 99 and to TransLink's
new Golden Ears Bridge connector.
South Fraser Perimeter Road
project – scheduled for completion in 2012
Capital costs are expected
to be $1 billion, including $300 million for property acquisition
and $700 million for construction. The project is expected to
generate approximately 4,200 person-years of employment and
contribute an estimated $387 million to the provincial gross
domestic product.
There are so many arguments to be made for protecting
food-growing land, that it is astonishing how every level of
government seems to view development on delta land as "progress".
With the world population pushing ever skyward, killing droughts
desiccating the food basket of California, and energy and
transportation costs soaring, you would think it only makes sense
to nurture our flat, sunny delta fields, and the farming families
that work them. Yet over the years, the provincial government has
marched roughshod over the agricultural community. From an early
expropriation of farmland for future port use, to the
criss-crossing of fields with power lines, highways, and other
infrastructure, the history of the delta landscape is one of death
by a thousand cuts.
Fly over British Columbia and you can immediately see why
arable farmland is so extremely scarce here, making up only five
percent of the total land area. This is a landscape with miles upon
miles of snow-capped mountains, narrow valleys that bake in summer
and freeze in winter, and steep coastal fiords with no beach to
separate ocean from rock. Agricultural land suitable for growing
crops is confined to relatively small areas in the south,
particularly the lower Fraser Valley, eastern Vancouver Island, and
the south Okanagan.
The floodplain of the lower Fraser has the advantage of
wide, flat fields and a benign climate, producing growing
conditions among the very best in Canada. Since the delta was dyked
and drained, it has produced award-winning potatoes, peas,
cauliflowers, blueberries, and many other crops. How much longer
will this be possible? Vancouver citizens wanting to participate in
the 100-mile diet should realize what a fragile hold on the
landscape the potato and fruit fields have, now that our government
has declared open season on those fertile acres.
Alternatives to the South Fraser Perimeter Road were put
forward, but the public consultation process was half-hearted at
best. There was no opportunity to say an outright "no" to the road
and no accountability. The environmental assessment produced
hundreds of pages of documents yet, as often happens, concluded
that there would be no lasting damage.
Meanwhile, the Scientific Advisory Panel to Burns Bog
warned in its submission of "high risk impacts to barn owls,
waterfowl, land birds, Red-legged Frog, the local nesting/staging
of the Greater Sandhill Crane population, and the threatened
Pacific Water Shrew".
Who stands to gain from this huge venture? It certainly is
not food-eating citizens or Burns Bog’s unique
wildlife.
"I wonder what kind of province we will be
passing on to the next generation?"