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LETTERS: Dozens of reasons ignored to burn rail ties

Say no to rail tie burning in Williams Lake
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Editor:

Two summers ago a massive and destructive wildfire jumped the Fraser River and slowly made its way east towards the city of Williams Lake.

In its path were several local lumber mills and there was grave concern that the embers from the fire would ignite the stacks of lumber ready for shipment and potentially destroy the mills similar to what occurred in Barriere a decade ago. This would have been devastating.

Now imagine that included in mix were hundreds of stacks of tinder dry, toxin laden railway ties like the ones that Atlantic Power has applied to burn at its facility adjacent to the mills.

Those stacks would ignite just like the milled lumber but the smoke that they would release would be incredibly poisonous and ash that would blanket our city and the surrounding area would be equally toxic.

Did our city council consider this as they said yes to a proposal that already contained dozens of reasons to turn down and was done so by councils elsewhere?

As we head into yet another forecasted hot and dry summer the above is yet another reason to say no to rail tie burning in Williams Lake.

Tim Horsley

Williams Lake