The Rock Report - May 2008 

Things have really been heating up this month at Crescent Rock Beach and this has nothing to do with warmer temperatures and sunnier skies.  Welcome to the longest Rock Report ever posted on the SUN website.
 
In a stunning move sure to provoke outrage and condemnation the World Ocean's Day (WOD) Organizing Committee, consisting of members of Friends of Semiahmoo Bay Society (FSBS) and the City of Surrey decided to exclude SUN from this community festival.  Their rational was that "SUN does not have a broad visible presence in the community as an environmental stewardship group".  Anyone who visits this website, reads the newspapers, listens to radio or watches T.V. knows that this is ludicrious.  Naturism and environmentalism are intertwined and SUN's eco-activist campaigns are well known throughout the community at large.  The SUN website currently receives over 11,000 visits per month resulting in almost 500,000 hits, showing the level of interest people have in naturism and our unique environmental perspective.  The WOD-OC also had the gall to smear SUN for not being a 'family focused service provider', not realizing that naturism is a way of life followed by families around the world who believe the concept of body acceptance fosters positive self-image in children allowing them to develop into healthy and happy adults.
 
The WOD-OC also stated that "participants are selected based on their track record as environmental stewardship groups".  This is laughable as SUN is the one environmental group in the peninsula that has constantly and consistantly railed about Surrey's most dangerous environmental threat, which is the BNSF Railway and their practice of shipping hazardous goods along the shores of Boundary Bay during times of extreme landslide threat.  SUN takes particular offence to this statement as we once approached FSBS to support the concept of BNSF Railway relocation to a safer inland location away from the waterfront.  The response from an executive member of FSBS was that they were not interested in getting involved with politics and if there was a spill from the railway into the waters of Boundary Bay that they would deal with it at that time.  To SUN this is not environmental protection but simply reactionism to a problem that could have been easily avoided by moving this historically dangerous railway that has already been the scene of 9 previous train wrecks, all from mudslides.
 
SUN believes the real reason we were excluded from WOD is because we promote naturism and that FSBS along with the City of Surrey are uncomfortable with this position.  SUN originally registered in February to be part of WOD and heard nothing back from either FSBS or Surrey.  We reapplied in April, once again receiving no reply from the co-hosts.  It was not until we recently inquired why we were being ignored that we were contacted by phone and told we'd somehow "fallen through the cracks" and that a response would be coming shortly.  SUN was not informed of our exclusion until a week before the WOD, eliminating the possibility of having this "clothes-minded" decision overturned.  Instead of being part of World Ocean's Day, SUN will now present its environmental concerns during Crescent Rock Beach Day instead, not wanting to be associated with a festival who's hosts operate in such a discriminatory, prejudiced and underhanded manner.
 
In other less contentious news from the month, SUN organized an impromptu minute of silence at Crescent Beach on May 10th to commemorate the imposition of the Nav Canada 'GRIZZ' STAR flight path that brought unwanted commercial aircraft noise pollution to the shores of the peninsula one year earlier.   SUN has called on the City of Surrey to proclaim May 10th as 'Noise Pollution Awareness Day' so that the effects of this steadily increasing source of irritation can be considered.  Plan on this becoming a yearly event as long as Nav Canada continues to destroy the peace and quiet of Crescent Rock Beach area with commercial jet aviation noise.

 

South Surrey residents point out noise pollution from jet planes.

Nav Canada also revealed this month that they are working with the Vancouver Airport Authority to release to the public real time information about flights at YVR on a website.  This system, already in use at U.S. airports such as Los Angeles will have a time delay for security purposes but will let lower mainland residents to identify planes that are an annoying source of noise pollution.  This will in turn allow people to report these planes and have Nav Canada consider making changes to their flight paths to reduce the impacts to surrounding communities suffering from this ever growing problem.  To view this system in use in L.A. visit www4.passur.com/lax.html
 
SUN's president attended this past month's Metro-Vancouver meeting in Langley to discuss solid and liquid waste and their future plans for its treatment and disposal.  SUN's opposition to Met-Van's proposed U.S. bound "trash trains" across Crescent Rock Beach were made known along with our call to have AirCare become "Ecocare", testing vehicles tailpipe emissions and for oil and fluid leaks that add to SWURP (storm water/urban runoff pollution).  SUN also corrected Met-Van officials when they stated that styrofoam was not recyclable, informing them that a plastics plant not two miles from the meeting recycled this product and that other systems for recovering polystyrene were available in many parts of the world.  Met-Van chairperson Lois Jackson has forwarded SUN's ideas for polystyrene recycling to the committee now studying this concept.
 
A Union Pacific coal train transporting coal was spotted this month by a SmartRail member passing through Crescent Beach.  SUN researched this new occurance, discovering that this was the first of a series of trains carrying coal from Utah bound for the Westshore coal terminal at Roberts Bank.  Due to the rising cost of coal it now appears it will be economically viable for this commodity from the U.S. to be shipped into Canada from transport overseas.  SUN predicts there will be a steady increase in coal trains across the BNSF tracks, resulting in coal dust pollution along this corridor including the beaches of White Rock and South Surrey plus an increase in the landslide threat from the Ocean Park bluffs due to the ground vibration from these very heavy trains.
 
The RCMP and BNSF announced they will be increasing track patrols along the peninsula rails using a hi-rail cruiser, which is a truck mounted on steel rail car wheels.  They will be watching for trespassers and party-goers all along the peninsula waterfront.  While SUN advises people to stay off the BNSF tracks due to the danger, we realize there are times such as high tides when the rail bed is the only realistic way to travel to and from Crescent Rock Beach.  We hope that the BNSF will not ticket naturists throughout this stretch and SUN advises people to not only watch out for freight trains and the Amtrak but to be aware of these trucks that will also be riding the rails.
 
A report by Surrey Fire Chief Len Garis that was adopted unanimously by council this month says responsibility for railway safety should remain with the federal government, not allowing Surrey to limit the movement of hazardous goods by rail.  SUN believes that allowing the BNSF to ship toxic and explosive chemicals across the shore of Boundary Bay during storms when rail bed washout is common or during winter rains when landslides can be expected needs to be stopped.  Unfortunately this threat is being ignored by all levels of government, including Transport Canada, which has the ultimate authority to stop this dangerous practice we call "railway roulette".  Garis's report also stated a two hour blockage of the roads to Crescent Beach was reported to the regional emergency communications centre, yet the local fire hall and RCMP detachment knew nothing of this incident when contacted by concerned residents unable to leave or enter their community.
 
SUN learned this month that Lily Point on the southwestern tip of Point Roberts had been saved from development and purchased by the Whatcom Land Trust.  The preservation of this area was brought to the attention of SUN by Judy Williams, Chairperson of Wreck Beach Preservation Society and Co-chair of the Fraser River Coalition.  SUN helped to spread the word for personal and corporate donors to considering putting money into the fund to buy this incredibly ecologically diverse property.  This new parks dedication ceremony will be on June 4th and SUN's president is planning on attending this event which he believes is symbolic of what should be done with the Ocean Park bluff lands below Surrey's new Kwomais Point park on the opposite side of Boundary Bay.