Editor:
The poet T S Eliot once defined life as "one long purification of motive."
As members of the Clean Air Society we are concerned with "our one long struggle to restore the purity of the air we breathe."
So imagine our dismay when we received a letter from a local firm informing us that it is motivated to install a burn system that it hopes will solve the environmental problems inherent in the disposal of land-clearing debris. Given the go-ahead by the Ministry of Environment they will set up a forced-air bin that will burn slash at a high temperature. Apparently little smoke will be visible.
Unfortunately this "ghost" smoke will be made up of tiny particulates even more dangerous to the health of our hearts and lungs than the numerous open burns that continue to spread a pall of smoke over our once clear mountainscape. The letter failed to mention where this facility will be located, or how it will be monitored, only that it will be placed somewhere on Sechelt Indian Band lands.
We are worried that it will be sited too close to built-up areas. This would be dangerous for the young and the old among us and for the residents who suffer from compromised respiratory systems. We urge the people involved in this commercial venture to consider the health of all the citizens who live in our inversion-prone district. There are alternatives -chipping, composting and burying, perhaps not a glamourous or remunerative as high-end bulk burning, but still able to provide much need jobs.
Heather and Gray Waddell
Sechelt
