Concerns

The City of Grand Forks, British Columbia, is attempting to annex 400 acres of unspoiled land at the mouth of Sand Creek Valley, 4 km north of the existing city limits, for the purpose of creating an industrial park. In half a dozen instances where a similar move was completed, mineral operation was implicated, or an already built up industrial site was involved. Unlike Grand Forks situation, to the best of our knowledge, in all other instances it was crown, not the private land that separated the annexed territory from the municipality's proper. This move, if successful, would create a precedence of far reaching implications of a municipality acquiring and rezoning unspoiled, farmland and wilderness far outside of the existing boundaries.

This proposal is contrary to the spirit and the wording of the Electoral Area D Official Community Plan, known as Bylaw No. 852 of the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary, approved and finally adopted by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs on August 26th 1999.

Aside from the province-wide implications of this proposal, there are a number of local and regional environmental aspects that render Sand Creek Valley particularly unsuitable for even a light industrial use:

· concerns about the aquifer pollution

· concerns about air pollution

· concerns about noise pollution (direct neighbours and new subdivisions facing the valley)

· concerns about visual impact of the proposed development

· concerns about threatened wildlife species, such as rattlesnake and grizzly bear

· concerns about British Columbia commitments to support grizzly bear reintroduction in the northwestern states (USA) and to maintain wildlife corridors to allow unhindered gene flow between the grizzly bear populations

Socio-economic concerns include:

· Annexation of the land by the city would give them the right to rezone under the city bylaws without any regional district constraints regarding use type and density with the potential of zoning heavy industrial use (i.e. Cantax or Paxton) further threatening the city of Grand Forks aquifer .

· Impact on the tourism industry (scenic Hummingbird Loop, Trans-Canada Trail directly overlooking the proposed development)

· Impact on organic farming in the valley

· Threat to attracting more high-tech industry to the region.

Safety issues include:

· concerns about an increase in potential forest fires in the Granby Valley

· concerns about highway safety due to considerable increase in vehicular traffic (currently school buses maintain a constant radio connection with the logging trucks due to the highly dangerous layout of the road.)

· concerns about potential traffic problems at the intersection of Granby Road and Highway 3.

Here are our main concerns:

We are vehemently opposed to the lack of consultations with the public. This is contrary to the spirit and the wording of the Electoral Area D Official Community Plan, known as Bylaw No. 852 of the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary, approved and finally adopted by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs on August 26th 1999. We are opposed to the fast track method and the lack of process in the consideration of a land purchase for industrial uses that will affect the residents in Electoral Area D and The City of Grand Forks.

Environmental issues:

Aquifer Endangerment: In the Area D Official Community Plan (OCP) Section 2.10 it indicates that "the Grand Forks regional aquifer, which supplies virtually all of the domestic water needs in the vicinity of Grand Forks, has been identified by the Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks as being vulnerable to degradation due to its shallow depth, the lack of an impermeable layer of overburden and some land uses present in the valley. " It also states" it may become necessary for the Regional District to take aggressive action to prevent further degradation of water quality." The City of Grand Forks plan is to annex this property to the city as a satellite to the city, and will be subject to the cities bylaws on zoning, Our concern is that this may eventually lead to a change in the zoning that would permit heavy industry, such as Cantex, which could have a detrimental affect on our air and water quality. In addition, the change in zoning could lead to a smaller lot sizes and an increased density of businesses, thus further threatening the aquifer. The land in question is part of our watershed and it is critically important that it is protected from inappropriate development. The water course on this land including Hall and Sand Creeks have been officially identified as a recharge area to the Grand Forks aquifer. We are concerned about the sewer systems that will need to be put in for the proposed industrial development and want to know if The Corporation of The City of Grand Forks has done environmental research on how this will affect the aquifer, the surrounding residents well systems as well as the Granby River. We would like to know the cost of this research and names and credentials of the consultants hired.

Grand Forks Aquifer Protection Society has identified 10 key facts about our water resources:

· The water we use in the Grand Forks Valley comes from an underground pool of water, called an aquifer, that we all share.

· There is no protective barrier to keep the household chemicals, fertilizers and oil products we use from polluting the aquifer.

· Major sources of water pollution in the Grand Forks Valley are agriculture and gardening and on-site septic systems.

· One third of the aquifer is polluted with nitrates and cannot be used for drinking and cooking. Drinking water polluted with nitrates can make you

· Gasoline, oil and other hazardous materials contaminate I sites in the Grand Forks Valley. One city well is contaminated with gasoline.

· Our groundwater moves to and from the Kettle and Granby Rivers at different times of the year. As the level of pollution in the Grand Forks aquifer increases, we begin to pollute the Kettle and Granby Rivers.

· If our community wells become contaminated, we will need to get our water from the Kettle and/or Granby Rivers upstream from the Grand Forks Valley.

· We can ask for water from the Kettle and Granby Rivers to be held in reserve for our future use.

· It will be very expensive to build and maintain this new water system using Kettle and/or Granby River water. Prevention is our best option.

Highway Development:

The section of Granby road between town and the proposed industrial development is dangerously narrow in some spots, is extremely slick in the winter, and has load restrictions for a few months of the year, which indicates the need for highway reconstruction. We are very concerned about potential traffic problems at the junction of Highway 3 and Granby Road. We are concerned about the potential costs to the taxpayer for the highway development and maintenance. How much will this cost, and will The Ministry of Highways approve this reconstruction?

Threat to Wildlife:

The former Passmore/Balabanoff property is a major wildlife corridor. Grizzly Bear and rattlesnake, both a protected species have both been spotted in the vicinity of this property, as well as a high number of white tail deer, mule deer, California Bighorn sheep, cougars, lynx, black bear and a number of other species of wildlife that depend on this natural corridor. This wildlife corridor is likely to affect trans-boundary wildlife movement. . The decision to block one of the few valleys may have an adverse effect on the United States efforts to reintroduce Grizzly Bear in to the Northwestern states. The B.C. Provincial Government has agreed to help keep the wildlife corridors open for the connectivity between the gene flow of the northern areas and the areas south of the border.