The Editor,

Re. "We need Burrard Thermal" (Green Scene, The Tri-City News, Aug. 14).

I think Elaine Golds' Green Scene column missed the mark on numerous points:

• The BC Utility Commission has told BC Hydro to increase the operation of Burrard Thermal from 5% to up to 75% of the time. In terms of emissions, this is the equivalent to adding 600,000 new vehicles to Port Moody streets. The environmental and human health impacts this creates are deeply worrying and should not be embraced, as Ms. Golds has suggested. I do not support any project that will create such massive emissions in a densely populated, confined airshed ("confined airshed" means that the pollution will hang around the Tri-Cities for a long time, like smoking in a crowded restaurant). This is not in the public interest.

• The notion that we should only focus on reducing emissions from cars is absurd, even more so that this advice is coming from an environmentalist. We need to reduce emissions from all sources, in whatever way we can, to the maximum extent possible.

• Yes, Burrard can provide voltage stabilization but major new transmission lines have already been approved and are to be built to provide this role.

• In order to extend its life for 20 years, some $266 million to $341.7 million in capital expenditures is required, according to documents filed to the BC Utilities Commission by BC Hydro. Even with this massive capital expenditure, it will still be 1950s technology with a 23% efficiency and will continue to belch out a toxic mixture of pollutants — just like refurbishing your grandfather’s 1959 Chevy. This money should be spent on responsible, sustainable, clean energy opportunities.

• When Burrard Thermal was built in 1961, it was on the outskirts of town. The health impacts of particulate and nitrous oxides where not understood and the concept of greenhouse gas was unheard of. Times have changed and Burrard Thermal has had every last cent of value wrung out of it. It is time to plan its orderly retirement.

In the short term, the closing of Burrard Thermal may be a tax loss for the city of Port Moody but, in the long term, it may provide a fantastic opportunity for the redevelopment of the whole area into an attractive, sustainable waterfront community — one that won’t threaten your health or mine.

Alexi Zawadzki, Coquitlam