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March 11, 2000
To the Editor,
Cape Breton Post, Sydney
ANOTHER NAIL IN CAPE BRETON'S COFFIN
Last week the Nova Scotia Environment Department (with consent from
Transportation and Public Works) completed a process begun by the
previous Liberal administration. On the surface, it appears like good
news - approval of
a new gypsum mine in the Melford area of Inverness County. However this
approval includes shipment of gypsum forty kilometers to Point Tupper
using
250 round trips by heavy ore trucks. This means one every three minutes
(counting both directions) for 24 hours a day for 20 years over already
crowded
highways. The route uses the two-lane non-controlled Trans-Canada
highway
with significant grades, and a busy suburban part of highway 4 along the
Strait
of Canso between Port Hastings, Port Hawkesbury, and Point Tupper.
Compared to the privately operated rail alternative, trucking presents
serious
problems with deaths and accidents on public roads, noise, road damage,
and
FIVE times the fuel consumption and pollution of rail. But another
longer term
problem is yet to be appreciated.
With the pending closure of coal and steel industries in Cape Breton
County,
Cape Breton rail traffic will slow to a trickle. Two or three round
trips by
gypsum trains daily would do a lot to retain the economic base for the
rail
line. Loss of the line will put an end to hopes for restoration of
year-round
passenger rail service and excursions along the Bras d'Or Lake for
Sydney's growing cruise ship trade. Also hurt would be hopes for
development of other
heavy industry along the line.
It's hard to understand how, with repeated protests, the environment and
transportation departments in two different provincial governments have
approved such a damaging transport alternative.
John Pearce, 40 Lorne Ave.,
Dartmouth, N.S., B2Y 3E7
Ph: 469-3474 Fax: 469-3637
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