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Submitter: Richelle Giberson
Community: Delta
Date Submitted: June 25, 2010
Summary:
Conditions on salmon farms have not improved in nearly twenty years. It is clear that salmon farms kill their natural surroundings. The commission should recommend that the planned South Fraser Perimeter Road be realigned to prevent exhaust emissions, heavy metals and toxic liquids from affecting fish habitat along the Fraser River through North Delta and Surrey.
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Submission:
There are two reasons I am writing today. The first is in regards to salmon farming, and the second is to do with freeways along the bank of the Fraser River.
Salmon Farms:
I grew up in Campbell River and had many friends who worked on fish farms. As far back as 1992, I can remember my friends telling me about how gross it was to have to dive in the farms. They told me about how the fish were sick, how seals would rip holes in the nets and thousand of predatory Atlantic Salmon would escape, and how there was so much sediment under the nets that the ocean floor underneath was dead.
This was almost twenty years ago and conditions have not improved. It is obvious that salmon farms kill their natural surroundings, it is time to get them out of our ocean.
Freeways:
In the Lower Mainland, the Fraser River has been pretty much completely industrialized. Almost the entire length of it through the city boundaries has little to no green space left along the banks. It is common knowledge that salmon need cool water to survive, yet we have allowed the banks of the river to be paved time and time again.
At this moment, there are plans for yet another freeway along the riverbank. This one is called the South Fraser Perimeter Road, and is part of the Gateway Program. This so-called "road" will be crossing more than 100 waterways that feed into the Fraser, logging 36 acres of forest along the edge of Burns Bog, spanning seven ravines through North Delta alone, and will also be pushed through sensitive wetlands in Surrey Bend Park. These are just the direct impacts the freeway will have on the Fraser River's surrounding environment, I haven't mentioned the resulting exhaust emissions, heavy metals, toxic liquids that drip from vehicles, etc. that will also affect the river. Please put a stop to this "road" and push for it to be realigned anywhere else but through the green space along the Fraser through North Delta and Surrey.
Thank you,
Richelle Giberson |
