PILES

of COAL at DeltaPort, Roberts Bank, near the ferry terminal in Tsawwassen where we get the ferry to Galiano Is., on the way to”our” island.    I really liked how the evening light illuminates “the dust suppression system”.  (waterspray!) However, the bigger picture is much murkier.  The coal comes in open train cars from Montana, Wyoming,  Colorado, thru Oregon and Washington to here where it’s unloaded in big piles and then loaded on ships bound for Asia, in spite of much effort to stop it or at best contain the coal dust from blowing all over.  You can imagine how it can blow around from big piles like this.. all over the nearby  Pt. Roberts marina.  Very unhealthy.  So.. at the terminal, Westshore Co. has installed a dust suppression system with 94 ground level rain guns; 17 130 foot high water towers and other supporting equipment which they say, “has significantly enhanced their dust suppression efforts. "      

I blipped the whole port HERE with some links to more information about this most controversial issue.

We lucked out again.., the friday night ferry altho 100% full was only 10 minutes late so we just got here in the last light. To save time, we  left some stuff in the car to retrieve tomorrow.   The tv is now telling about water restrictions and fire bans —already in May it’s too dry!  the new normal?  (strawberries are way ahead of schedule too).  Now time for bed....happy as always to sleep here.


The wbc is PILES OF STUFF so here you have piles of coal :-)

Edit:  well I assumed that they were using salt water but today I looked for some answers... here is a (well designed!) website for Westshore that of course insists there are no health risks to the general public nearby from coal dust. They say 75% of the water they use  (from rain catchment and "other" sources) is recyclable and they have recently (2014) put in a plant to clean up that water.   Too much information out there....