Editor:
Instead of pole-walking along our promenade, I’ve had to exercise elsewhere due to the overwhelming stench emanating from piles of creosote-soaked railway ties which BNSF dropped along the track, to upgrade its railroad from the border to the Fraser River bridge.
When the seabreeze blows onshore, the fumes are intolerably overwhelming!
Perhaps David Suzuki wouldn’t be surprised, but I was astonished when Melonas, the BNSF railway spokesman claimed “the work meets environment standards” (Train track work gets underway, Peace Arch News, March 23). Considering the railroad’s proximity to important waterways, one would think the BNSF’s ‘experts’ would have found something more environmentally friendly by now, since all research indicates creosote is cancer-causing.
Admittedly, my patience has worn thin after witnessing car upon countless train car hauling uncovered coal and garbage by me as I stroll along the promenade, but we all know it’s just a matter of time before our spring rain washes the creosote down to our sandy beaches (just in time for sun-bathing weather) and into the sea.
Taking into account our Pacific Ocean is now dealing with radioactive fallout, it seems to me if the BSNF doesn’t want to show any kind of environmental leadership re: their mode of transportation then, it’s time they stopped using our seaside to transport their environmentally unfriendly cargo.
It’s time to get with the (green) ‘program’!
D.M. Stewart, White Rock