Posted with permission from Stoney Creek News.
By Richard Leitner
Stoney Creek News
Dec 14, 2007
The Hamilton Port Authority is rejecting an eleventh-hour appeal to halt construction of a wharf in the east harbour that will push aside fish, turtles, beavers, coyotes and migratory birds to make way for ships.
Linda MacDonald, vice-president of operations for the federal agency, said the Pier 22 project has received all necessary approvals and will continue over the next two months as planned.
Hamilton Conservation Authority directors voted last week to try to intervene on the wharf after being told the area, known as Harris Inlet, is teeming with wildlife and includes one of the east harbour's biggest stands of mature trees.
Councillor Chad Collins said the planned filling in of two large ponds runs "in the opposite direction" of other efforts to reclaim the harbour -- including the port authority's proposed $3-million rehabilitation of Sherman Inlet.
"I just think it makes all the sense in the world that we somehow get involved and protect as much of that property as possible," he said.
"Even if it's to broker some kind of compromise and the laws are against us, I think that should raise the issue as well."
But Ms. MacDonald said the conservation authority was consulted in May as part of an environmental assessment and raised no objections then.
The wharf is being constructed on the northern portion of a 42-hectare property that is home to a former Stelco rod mill. The port authority bought the site a year ago.
"The construction of the wharf will be ongoing. We have followed the process, the environmental assessment and we have an approved project that we are working on," Ms. MacDonald said.
"The plan is to build a wharf, have marine traffic go to the wharf and have the land available for industrial use," she said. "It's an industrial port. We are looking to develop for industry."
Conservation authority director Jim Howlett led the push for an intervention on the project after surveying the inlet and finding several species of fish, birds and other wildlife.
The Hamilton Beach resident said maps from the early 1900s suggest industrial dumping has already filled in much of the waterway, home to an active beaver dam and coyote dens.
It is fed by a creek that in turn appears to be fed by creeks originating on the escarpment, he said.
"If you look at it, you can't really believe that it's east Hamilton Harbour," Mr. Howlett said.
"What's the difference between that and Cootes Paradise or some other great place in the west harbour? When I walked in here, I scared off two great big herons that were sitting on the banks," he said.
"There's enough tracks there to say that there's a lot of activity of different wildlife," he said. "There's hundreds of fish."
According to an environmental screening report on the project, an assessment by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) determined that only one of the two ponds -- or "man-made depressions" -- is considered fish habitat.
Each are about three hectares and will be filled with nearly a third of the 185,000 cubic metres of sediment being dredged to provide the proper depth for ships using the wharf's 215-metre dock.
While the conservation authority was consulted last spring, it deferred to the DFO, stating it had no jurisdiction on federal lands, according to the report.
There was no public consultation.
"Due to the site specific nature of this project in an already industrialized area, formal public consultation was not deemed necessary as part of this assessment," the report states.
Mr. Howlett said he isn't trying to stop the project, but push the port authority "to be much more modern and sensitive in its land-use planning."
He said the port authority has told him it plans to compensate for the lost fish habitat at an island elsewhere in the harbour but the two sites aren't comparable.
"It seems incongruous that they're blowing trumpets about Sherman Inlet in the central harbour, but in the east harbour they're doing something far worse."
__________________________________________________________________________
By Richard Leitner
Stoney Creek News
Dec 14, 2007
The Hamilton Port Authority is rejecting an eleventh-hour appeal to halt construction of a wharf in the east harbour that will push aside fish, turtles, beavers, coyotes and migratory birds to make way for ships.
Linda MacDonald, vice-president of operations for the federal agency, said the Pier 22 project has received all necessary approvals and will continue over the next two months as planned.
Hamilton Conservation Authority directors voted last week to try to intervene on the wharf after being told the area, known as Harris Inlet, is teeming with wildlife and includes one of the east harbour's biggest stands of mature trees.
Councillor Chad Collins said the planned filling in of two large ponds runs "in the opposite direction" of other efforts to reclaim the harbour -- including the port authority's proposed $3-million rehabilitation of Sherman Inlet.
"I just think it makes all the sense in the world that we somehow get involved and protect as much of that property as possible," he said.
"Even if it's to broker some kind of compromise and the laws are against us, I think that should raise the issue as well."
But Ms. MacDonald said the conservation authority was consulted in May as part of an environmental assessment and raised no objections then.
The wharf is being constructed on the northern portion of a 42-hectare property that is home to a former Stelco rod mill. The port authority bought the site a year ago.
"The construction of the wharf will be ongoing. We have followed the process, the environmental assessment and we have an approved project that we are working on," Ms. MacDonald said.
"The plan is to build a wharf, have marine traffic go to the wharf and have the land available for industrial use," she said. "It's an industrial port. We are looking to develop for industry."
Conservation authority director Jim Howlett led the push for an intervention on the project after surveying the inlet and finding several species of fish, birds and other wildlife.
The Hamilton Beach resident said maps from the early 1900s suggest industrial dumping has already filled in much of the waterway, home to an active beaver dam and coyote dens.
It is fed by a creek that in turn appears to be fed by creeks originating on the escarpment, he said.
"If you look at it, you can't really believe that it's east Hamilton Harbour," Mr. Howlett said.
"What's the difference between that and Cootes Paradise or some other great place in the west harbour? When I walked in here, I scared off two great big herons that were sitting on the banks," he said.
"There's enough tracks there to say that there's a lot of activity of different wildlife," he said. "There's hundreds of fish."
According to an environmental screening report on the project, an assessment by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) determined that only one of the two ponds -- or "man-made depressions" -- is considered fish habitat.
Each are about three hectares and will be filled with nearly a third of the 185,000 cubic metres of sediment being dredged to provide the proper depth for ships using the wharf's 215-metre dock.
While the conservation authority was consulted last spring, it deferred to the DFO, stating it had no jurisdiction on federal lands, according to the report.
There was no public consultation.
"Due to the site specific nature of this project in an already industrialized area, formal public consultation was not deemed necessary as part of this assessment," the report states.
Mr. Howlett said he isn't trying to stop the project, but push the port authority "to be much more modern and sensitive in its land-use planning."
He said the port authority has told him it plans to compensate for the lost fish habitat at an island elsewhere in the harbour but the two sites aren't comparable.
"It seems incongruous that they're blowing trumpets about Sherman Inlet in the central harbour, but in the east harbour they're doing something far worse."
__________________________________________________________________________