Every day someone writes to protest the development of the Ajax mine.

Why don’t they build it somewhere else, where it won’t ruin my view of sun-dried hills and beetle-killed pine trees?

It’s the “not-in-my-backyard” song over and over again. I for one look forward to the mine.

This town needs the high-paying jobs. Domtar will likely close in the next 10 years. With it gone, so will most of the support jobs.

With fewer high-paying jobs, there will be less money spent to help the local economy. Our taxes will increase because our town’s population will decrease.

Ajax will be more inclined to follow the environmental rules with it being so close to the eyes and ears of local citizens, rather than 50 kilometres up some “no-public-access” gravel road.

Everyone with a camera can document infractions. The miners themselves will not want to endanger their own families living in Kamloops, so they would be more likely to be “whistle-blowers.” There are lots of lawyers in Kamloops who can lead the charge in a class-action lawsuit if it ever came to that.

I would rather live near an open-pit mine than within 100 kilometres of a “fracking” operation. The process for extracting natural gas is far more damaging to the environment and cannot be reversed.

The water used under high pressure to crack the bedrock to release the gas for collection becomes so toxic it has to be contained to prevent it from contaminating the ground water.

Sadly, in the case of many inhabitants of northern B.C., they have come to realize the potable water for themselves, their livestock and the wildlife is becoming dangerous to use due to leaking containment ponds.

At least our giant hole in the ground can be monitored.

Feel sorry for the sparsely populated north, it doesn’t stand a chance. Out of sight, out of mind.

KATE MOLLOY

Kamloops