If we can hear fireworks, what about Ajax?

Kamloops' Canada Day celebrations were great, though I didn't stay for the fireworks. I could see and hear them from inside our home three km away in Sahali. Acquaintances heard them in Juniper Ridge 7 km away. In fact, a good percentage of Kamloopsians could hear the fireworks from their homes.

So if we heard the relatively minor pops of fireworks, might we hear the blasting of 205,000 tons of rock a day if the proposed Ajax open-pit mine is built? Of course we would. The daily noise would be bad for our health, concentration, rest, enjoyment of our property, and general quality of life. Most affected would be people living in Aberdeen and Pineview Valley, where many homes are only 1.5 km from the mine (The mine's property is 50 per cent within city limits). But even Kamloopsians living considerably farther away would be affected. Residents of Logan Lake say they sometimes hear blasting from the Highland Valley Copper mine 16 km away from them. Fortunately for them, they are far enough away that only wind, directly from the west, carry the sounds of the explosions to them. Also the distance diminishes the noise.

It would be different in Kamloops. We're immediately next to the proposed Ajax Mine site, which is about 8 km wide, and we're downwind of it. That means we'd constantly be on the receiving end of the noise, not just from the blasting but from the trucks and the ore processing plant.

Ajax's target ore body is very large, extending many kilometers. So how about moving that proposed mine farther away from where 90,000 Kamloopsians live, work, play, and try to rest?

ELMA SCHEMENAUER

Kamloops