A provincial report projects that by the end of the century under a moderate flood risk scenario "the 50-year return period event will have a magnitude similar to the 1948 flood". The same report states that a failure of the earthen Lajoie Dam and subsequent failure of the Terzaghi Dam below it would result in a flood "significantly larger than the estimated 10,000 year return period event". It would be only hours before those flood waters reached the hazardous waste site. In this seismically active province this is a risk that cannot be discounted. One need only consider the failure of the earthen Mount Polley dam, which needed no earthquake to trigger it.
Well, in reality a flood of this nature would turn many areas thought to be fairly safe into sources of toxic contamination even if the hazardous waste site is never built in the proposed location. Personally, the magnitude of such a catastrophic event, and everything else that can accompany it, kind of overshadows the purpose of this protest.
Risks from this facility, if built, include emissions from normal operations, accidents on the site, accidents transporting materials to and from the site, and flooding from the river.
In my opinion, this site could be moved elsewhere and it would run into similar opposition. Although badly needed, toxic waste recycling doesn't attract willing neighbours I don't think. Not saying that the proposed site is the best option out there, but I don't necessarily believe this website when they say they support the facility, but not the location - especially when they start saying the things they are saying in the quote above. If the facility is built somewhere else away from the river will there not be these "emissions from normal operations" or is this only a concern in the proposed location? When you push something like this away from one place to another it will inevitably piss someone else off. I feel that there will just be another group protesting at another site these emissions from normal operations, possible accidents on site, and accidents transporting materials to and from the site. Probably get more support opening up a new Target store or a Steven Harper shrine.
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Topic: Important Issue On The Fraser River (Read 13300 times)