Metro Vancouver residents are protesting a wastewater treatment plant upgrade because of its location near their homes. This is economically, environmentally, and socially troubling for a number of reasons.

A small group of high-profile, well-connected, media-savvy residents of Deering Island and Southlands (D&S) have launched a very professionally-produced, well-financed, and successful protest to stop the Iona Beach Regional Park wastewater plant upgrade’s construction-barge berth from being built near their homes.

The problem is that their protest omits important reasons why their suggested alternate location is less suitable that the original.

Over 1,200 people have now signed this protest without knowing all of the facts regarding the alternate location. After learning the truth, several people have already asked to have their names removed from the petition, which seems to be more of a lobby group action than a grassroots community action.

The Iona wastewater upgrade is sorely needed, and is a project of mammoth proportions. The entire footprint has to be raised 12 feet to survive the predicted rise in sea levels, and the entire area has to be stabilized to withstand earthquakes.

The project’s management company has said that to avoid 500 trucks per day coming and going with construction materials, a more efficient method would be to bring them in by water on barges.

But since the original Iona plant was constructed, a community of about 37 houses has been developed across the water on Deering Island, along with a small 0.7-hectare municipal park—and now those residents don’t want the barge berth near their homes. Over many years, the D&S group has consistently suggested that the project engineers look at other locations—namely, one just past Iona Beach Regional Park on the North Arm Spit.

I live virtually equidistant between the Deering location and the North Arm Spit location. And in my own research, I have found that there are several problems that would have to be overlooked in order to choose the North Arm Spit location.

1. The North Arm Spit location is two kilometres from the construction site, meaning using this location would require the original 500 trucks per day transporting materials, coming and going for eight years. Alternatively, a very large two-kilometre-long conveyor belt, costing many extra millions, would have to haul the materials to the construction site. Either way, these materials would have to be moved right through the edge of Iona Beach Regional Park, which has had an annual attendance of just under 190,000 people, and then past the Musqueam primary reserve and Salish Park and Musqueam Park lease lands.The Deering Island location, meanwhile, is located right at the construction site, and nearby park has a much smaller annual attendance.
2. The North Arm Spit location is directly adjacent to a large wetland area that is home to many migrating birds and has a delicate ecosystem that would be disrupted by the lighting, noise, and pollution from the barge berth. This wetland is also a traditional hunting area for the Musqueam. Although the D&S protest talks about a wetland area, the Deering shoreline seems to have no wetlands of any size and is mainly concrete riprap.
3. The Raincoast Conservation Foundation has, at considerable expense, just completed creating a second breach in the North Arm Spit to aid in salmon migration. The close proximity of the industrial barge berth with its noise, lighting, and pollution at that location could be detrimental to this goal.
4. The D&S protest maintains that the Deering location is narrow and will obstruct river traffic. In fact, though, the navigable portion of the channel at the North Arm Spit is almost the same width. The Musqueam canoe paddlers they are concerned about also regularly pass by the North Arm Spit location.
5. The Spit is a rare urban dark sky place; seeing the delicate wisps of the Milky Way within a large city is a rare Vancouver blessing. The required berth night lighting pollution would end that.

The decision on where the berth will go is still pending. It would be a shame if a special interest group was able to override good engineering judgment because of under-informed public opinion. Time will tell.

Craig F. McCaw is is a Planetarium producer, musician, and screen composer.