If the Roberts Bank terminal is doubled in size, Port Metro Vancouver does not want the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency to consider the impact of road and rail traffic and pollution outside of its real property line.
That has the City of Richmond and the Corporation of Delta crying foul as they want the agency to include the aggravating factors — the impact on truck traffic, First Nations land, farms and air quality — of the terminal on the region, as a whole.
Richmond City Council environmental will write a letter of support to Delta, which is asking the agency to reconsider the port’s stance. Delta claims not doing so could set a precedent for federal environmental assessments on future projects, including, potentially, ones in Richmond.
“Clearly, a development of this magnitude will have significant impacts on local and regional road and rail networks, and there will be marine impacts beyond the terminal berths,” wrote Delta’s mayor Lois Jackson to the City of Richmond.
Jackson said her “number one concern” for Delta was traffic and wanted “inland ports” to be considered an option to Roberts Bank Terminal II, which would see annual container capacity double from 2.4 to 4.8 million containers.
The terminal is accessible via a jetty and can be seen from the BC Ferries terminal, often with large mounds of coal near the tip.
To read the full report, including Port metro Vancouver's full response to Delta, click here.
