Fraser traffic concerns grow after ship runs aground
Posted January 28, 2014 9:30 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
RICHMOND (NEWS1130) – A giant container ship got stuck in the mud in the Fraser River Saturday for over a half hour before it made it to safety.
The ship’s crew managed to free it with minimal damage, but Carol Day with the group Vancouver Airport Fuel Project Opposition for Richmond (VAPOR) says the incident highlights a bigger potential problem.
“It just makes us more freaked out. Just look at the size of a Panamax tanker. And the crazy thing is, at one of the narrowest parts of the river, the tanker is going to have to turn around so it can hard flop onto the marine terminal,” she explains.
She says a jet fuel terminal isn’t necessary and would increase the likelihood of a dangerous spill exponentially. “If this tanker is running aground, what’s going to happen with a jet fuel tanker.”
Day says the river is too narrow, too shallow, and just not able to handle the huge ships using it as a busy seaway.
She says the jet fuel terminal would see regular barge traffic heading down the river. “It’s like the ministry and the Province of British Columbia want to turn it into the Saint Lawrence and it’s just not conducive.”
She says this latest problem is a clear sign. “Our concern has been right from the start that this is the wrong place to put a jet fuel marine terminal.”
The Pacific Pilotage Authority says the grounding was a very rare incident.
