Thursday May 8, 2014 (Vol. 39 No.37)
V O I C E
O F
W H I T E
R O C K
A N D
S O U T H
Perfect fit: A Cloverdale girl who recently received a custom-made hand tool is proving that amputees can live active healthy lifestyles and plans to share her story to raise awareness. i see page 19
S U R R E Y
w w w. p e a c e a r c h n e w s . c o m
Weekend deluge has lasting effect for food supply
Flooded farmers look on bright side Tracy Holmes Staff Reporter
Checking on his lettuce crop the morning after Sunday’s downpour, South Surrey farmer James Yue wanted to cry. Where the fields used to be, there was a vast body of water – the result of torrential rains that drenched the Lower Mainland. Nine acres of his leafy crop – of his livelihood – are still underwater. As of Tuesday afternoon, it was still deep enough that when he waded in, it reached to his mid-thigh, and he estimates it will be another three weeks before it can be replanted. “It’s devastating,” Yue said of the damage. “What I lost, you can’t recover it.” Yue, a fourth-generation farmer, estimates the deluge – which hit the eastern corners of White Rock and South Surrey particularly hard – has cost him at least $100,000 in plants, fertilizer and more. “And that’s being conservative,” he said. “You don’t expect these things. My mom’s been at it for 55 years – she’s never seen anything like it.” Yue’s family owns three farms – 100 acres in all – in the 4300-block of 176 Street. They started farming in 1967. i see page 8
Tracy Holmes photos
South Surrey farmer James Yue wades through his lettuce field Tuesday, days after torrential rains. At left, he holds up a drenched cabbage.
Train bridge over Little Campbell River has long been targeted for replacement
BNSF to replace trestle, with or without First Nation Tracy Holmes
Semiahmoo for access to build a replacement bridge – a project valued at $1.3 million. The bridge sits on a BNSF-owned right-of-way through the Semiahmoo reserve.
Staff Reporter
Work to replace the deteriorating Little Campbell River rail bridge “could begin as early as this summer.” BNSF spokesman Gus Melonas gave the update this week, confirming at the same time that the timeline does not mean access to the bridge has been worked out with the Semiahmoo First Nation. “We would apply technology from railroad property,” Melonas told Peace Arch News Monday. Melonas told PAN last August and again in January that the company was negotiating with the
Repeated efforts by PAN to elicit comment from the band spokesperson have been unsuccessful. The bridge has been a subject of concern for years, and earmarked
Rock city manager Dan Bottrill and BNSF officials in Seattle last week, Coun. Grant Meyer said he took the opportunity to ask about the status of replacement plans. “They said they have a plan. They didn’t expand,” Meyer said. “I took that as positive… that maybe there has been some movement.” Meyer said other topics discussed at the meeting in Seattle focused on the “mutual concern over rail safety,” and included the possibility of new railings along the waterfront, trespassing and the transportation of dangerous goods through the Semiahmoo Peninsula. i see page 4
Railway secrecy concerns mayor Alex Browne Staff Reporter
White Rock is not receiving much comfort for promising confidentiality on dangerous goods shipped by rail through the community. So says Mayor Wayne Baldwin, who is critical of a directive from Transport Canada that requires railway companies to share limited
information on dangerous goods with municipalities and first responders – but in return for not disclosing the information to the public. In a worst-case scenario – a freight train derailment – first responders would still have only a guess what they might be dealing with, Baldwin said, based on past shipments. i see page 4
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