Editor, The News:
We are against the proposal by the Katzie First Nation and Canadian Aggregates Inc. to quarry and build this access road on Blue Mountain.
What lunacy would force the quarry traffic that far out of the way – 7.2 kilometres one way, carrying many millions of tons of rocks for the next 100 or more years, when the obvious route is 256th Street.
The residents of 256th St. either knew and accepted, the development of industrial zoning at the end of their road, or they didn’t fight hard enough to stop it at the time.
If the proposal goes ahead, the decidedly detrimental effect of 20-ton trucks grinding and thundering through rural residential country roads will befall the residents of 284th, 280th and 272nd streets, as these will become industrial feeder routes to the Lougheed Highway.
Quarry trucks going east and west using Dewdney Trunk Road between 272nd Street and Webster’s Corners will have to negotiate many long steep gradients on a two-lane road.
At this point, let us not forget the enormous commercial and residential development planned for Silverdale by Genstar and Madison that will double the population of Mission in the next little while. This will need vast tonnages of aggregate and the closest quarry will be the one proposed for Blue Mountain. The municipality should spend the millions required to upgrade 256th Street and the Dewdney Trunk Road to handle industrial loads, which the zoning calls for.
If you look at the quarry company’s problem to efficiently move their heavy loads to the east, the proposed access road should be longer and join Dewdney at Wilson Road, which is designated a major road leading directly to the Silverdale area.
The finest solution would have the quarry in Silverdale.
Allan G. Skene
Maple Ridge