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X-Mozilla-Status: 0801 FCC: C:\MAIL\Sent Message-ID: <3710328A.1E4D@ns.sympatico.ca> Date: Sat, 10 Apr 1999 22:26:34 -0700 From: John/Karen Pearce <jk.pearce@ns.sympatico.ca> Organization: LLLC/T2000ATL X-Mailer: Mozilla 2.02E-SYMPA (Win95; I; 16bit) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: letters@herald.ns.ca Subject: Transport of Gypsum from Medford, Cape Breton Mine Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit April 10, 1999 Dear Editor: I am forwarding this letter, similar to many already sent to provincial officials, in response to today's editorial "Georgia Pacific (gypsum) Mine Deserves Green Light". In the view of Transport 2000 Atlantic, the environmental side-effects of transportation of the gypsum are by far the most significant issue but have been virtually ignored. Transport 2000 Atlantic protests the lack of any apparent provincial assessment of transportation alternatives for shipment of gypsum from the Medford gypsum mine in Cape Breton. This flawed environmental assessment is an economic, social, and environmental disaster for the people of the area and for much of the province and urgently needs rethinking. 500 100,000 pound gypsum trucks leaving the mine every day means one every 3 minutes each way on the busy two-lane Trans-Canada highway. This road is NOT controlled access but has many local road crossings at grade and even more private driveways (similar to the old Wentworth Valley highway). The topography is hilly, so that the loaded westbound trucks will be slowed on hills, holding up other traffic and likely causing serious accidents for impatient individuals who try to pass. Each of these trucks does damage to the highway equal to 10,000 to 20,000 automobiles! The cost to repair the highway over the 20-year life of the mine is difficult to forecast, but it could reach a hundred million dollars. The cost of upgrading to a controlled access four lane road, including the congested stretch from Port Hastings to Point Tupper would likely be $250 to $500 million. This would, of course, come from taxpayers. In addition to the economic cost, there is the social cost of the inevitable increase in death and injury on the highway, disincentives to tourist travel, and the dust and noise for everyone along the 40 mile route from a truck passing every 1 ½ minutes. As a comparison, may we note that 2 trains carry a total of 150 loaded railcars of gypsum from Milford, Hants Co., to Wright's Cove in Dartmouth each day. This is the equivalent of 500 trucks each way using Highway 102 and local roads in Milford and through Burnside Park or Magazine Hill in Dartmouth. The rail alternative from Milford, and between Windsor and Hantsport in the Annapolis Valley has long been the best choice, as it is in Cape Breton as well. We strongly recommend that a 5-mile spur rail line be built from the Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway line near River Denys to the mine site. The cost of such a line, including an overpass across the Trans-Canada highway should not exceed $6 to 8 million, only a small fraction of road costs. We also suggest that the Province of Nova Scotia should finance this spur and lease it to the CB&CNS for the 20-year life of the mine. Any losses to the province in this arrangement would be very small compared to the cost of maintaining the Trans-Canada highway plus opportunity costs resulting from injury and death in gypsum truck accidents. >From the environmental side, rail transport of bulk material such as gypsum is 6 to 8 times more energy efficient than rubber-tired truck on heavier grades. It thus produces much less greenhouse gas and other pollutants. There would be only 2 or 3 trains per day compared to 500 trucks, and they would be on a private right-of-way. The extra gypsum rail traffic would help to ensure quality rail service for other Cape Breton industries which might otherwise be in jeopardy due to declining coal shipments. Transport 2000 Atlantic hopes very much that environmental officials will be able to act quickly in this matter and bring it up at the current session of the Nova Scotia Legislature. You will note from some recent news clippings that the media also senses a serious policy error in this matter. Yours truly, John Pearce, President, Transport 2000 Atlantic. Phone 469-3474 e-mail jk.pearce@ns.sympatico.ca -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- You received this because you are subscribed to "sust-mar", the Sustainable Maritimes mailing list. To unsubscribe, send email to <majordomo@chebucto.ns.ca> with "unsubscribe sust-mar" (without quotes) as the body of your message. To post a message to sust-mar subscribers, send it to <sust-mar@chebucto.ns.ca> Posts that are off-topic or excessive length (10K) will be rejected. For help contact <sust-mar-owner@chebucto.ns.ca>
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