Seven cars of a 152-car coal train moving along CN Rail tracks through Vancouver region derailed yesterday in Burnaby. Three of the cars tipped over and spilled their loads, contaminated the waters of a stream flowing into Burnaby Lake where conservationists have worked for decades to restore the water and spawning salmon from the effects of industrial pollution and urbanization. A sign posted on a protective fence at the creek by Fisheries and Oceans Canada says the waterway is considered a sensitive fish and wildlife habitat and that the area is protected.
The Gateway Pacific Terminal, near Bellingham, Washington, is poised to become the West Coast’s biggest coal export project — but it will no longer have the backing of New York-based, international banking behemoth Goldman Sachs. On Tuesday, Goldman Sachs sold its stock back to the companies proposing to build the terminal, which would transport 48 million tons of coal from Wyoming to Asia annually. Goldman Sachs had a 49 percent stake in the Gateway Pacific project before dropping out.
On Monday (December 16), six “anti-capitalist” Santas from the activist group Rising Tide delivered coal to the private offices of “naughty” Port Metro Vancouver. PMV is reviewing the permit application and consultation process for the proposed Fraser Surrey Docks coal port development. This project would see the delivery of at least four million tonnes of coal by train, and then open barge to Texada Island, to be loaded onto ships and sold to Asia.
“Come January, we’ll start to focus pressure on the province,” Kevin Washbrook, a spokesman for the group Voters Taking Action on Climate Change, said in a recent e-mail.
“They [the provincial government] have so far been silent on this, even though they have complete power to spike the Texada end of this proposal by refusing a permit to expand the coal-handling facilities there. The port [Port Metro Vancouver] has no say in that decision. No Texada terminal, no barging coal from Surrey, and the project is dead.”
Port Metro Vancouver could make a decision at any time on the application by Fraser Surrey Docks to export up to four million tonnes a year of coal, which would come by train through White Rock, Surrey and Delta, and go by barge down the Fraser River and north to a transshipment terminal at Texada Island.
Critics staged a silent vigil at the port authority offices Tuesday afternoon as the deadline passed for comments on an environmental impact assessment, which has been widely criticized as inadequate.
Depending on your perspective, either the downtown offices of Port Metro Vancouver were invaded Monday morning by “masked protesters carrying bags containing an unknown substance” or six Santas who tried to deliver bags of coal to port officials and got thrown out.
Vancouver and Coast Salish Territories, British Columbia — No less than 80% of Canada’s coal exports are shipped through British Columbia, and export terminals in the Lower Mainland received over $1 billion earlier this year to improve transport efficiency and capacity. Now, a new proposal for coal export from the Fraser Surrey Docks (FSD) terminal has raised the alarm bells for local residents.
VANCOUVER, COAST SALISH TERRITORIES – This morning, activists with Rising Tide-Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories dropped a banner reading “Coal, Oil, Gas: None Shall Pass” outside Port Metro Vancouver’s head office at Canada Place, in opposition to the proposed Fraser Surrey Docks coal terminal. “This coal export project is part of a push to make BC a gateway to profits for the fossil fuel industry.
We appreciate the chance to respond to the union members’ op-ed on coal exports from Nov. 27, (Critics of coal exports are misinformed) as it provides an opportunity to clear up misunderstandings circulated by the coal lobby. As the members pointed out, they are responsible for mining and transporting B.C.’s metallurgical coal to markets overseas. The key word here is metallurgical. We are opposed to Fraser Surrey Docks’ proposal to export U.S. thermal coal.
