Dear Editor:
Re: Keep Perspective on Mine, Burnaby NOW, Aug. 20.
I have read thousands of letters to the editor in my life and there have been some good ones and bad ones. I have even written a few of the bad ones myself.
I also think that it is great that newspapers publish good and bad, as it gives us an idea of what the public is thinking. But Donald Leung’s recent letter claiming that the Mount Polley tailings breach is “not unlike any other naturally occurring mud slide” sets a new low for insulting our intelligence and his own.
Why does Mr. Leung think that tailing ponds are required? Is it just to store drinking water in case of a drought? Maybe it boosts unemployment in rural areas?
The fact of the matter is that tailing ponds store extremely toxic waste that is deadly to humans and other life. If Donald Leung thinks the runoff from Mount Polley is so pristine, I challenge him to spend his next vacation swimming and eating fish from Quesnel Lake.
Like the Lac-Mégantic disaster confirmed, it is very bad policy to leave industry to regulate itself. While we don’t have all the facts as to why this happened, I would be willing to bet lax regulation had a significant role in the Mount Polley toxic release.
Murray Martin, Burnaby
