Downtown Dirt Alert

Judith Veresuk, Executive Director of the Downtown Windsor Business Improvement Association, wrote a nice guest column about "a few realities not covered in recent Windsor Star coverage" about the downtown. She spent a good part of the column talking about the "clean team" removing litter, sweeping up and cleaning the streets amongst other issue.

Unfortunately, no one has dealt with an issue that should be front and centre with the debate that Council will have on Monday about tunnels: Detroit/Windsor Tunnel exhaust and its effect on downtown and other areas of the City.

I raise this issue because there seems to be a bit of a battle going on between Gord Henderson and another local, lonely Blogger Chris Schnurr over tunnels. http://chrisschnurr.wordpress.com/

The issue seems to me to be a very simple one to deal with. Why not use scrubbers to solve the dirty air problem IF such technology exists. Gord claims that there is technology, Chris says that there is no such technology.

These two can go back and forth on the matter with no real determination being made. It struck me however that the way to get the answer is a simple one. Someone merely should call up the Chair of the Windsor Tunnel Commission and get the answer from him.

Oh in case you have been living in a tunnel, the Chair is also the Mayor!

WE HAVE A TUNNEL VENTILATION BUILDING IN WINDSOR!

Not only a building but a heritage building at that. Oh, I am waiting to see how Eddie uses that designation to try and stop something in the future too. Hmmmmm if the Bridge Co. dared to try to buy the Tunnel, since it is "heritage" building, the City could use that designation to disrupt operations. Wow, another Sisters of St. Joseph building-type matter that could wind up in the Courts for years.

Actually, we don't need to look at studies from around the world. We don't have to ask some consultant what the answer is. The Chair should have the answer at his finger-tips. It is part of his business after all to know this.

Now the Mayor/Chair has been conspicuous by his absence in this debate. Is it because he knows that previously, there was no scrubber on the building and that the dirty Tunnel air was spewed out into downtown and other areas of Windsor? We know that million have been spent to repair and upgrade the building but we do not know if scrubbers were included. If not, why not? Surely, money is no object in downtown Windsor when the health of citizens are involved. If we want scrubbers on the DRIC road, then Council must be consistent downtown too. Mark Boscariol should demand no less from Eddie.

I had another idea---if we can demand air monitoring on Huron Church Road, why aren't we monitoring the air around our Tunnel now to get an indication of what may happen if we build a series of new ventilation buildings. Why hasn't our Mayor/Chair demanded that DRIC do this research work too and immediately?

I think I may know the answer. If the air coming out of the Tunnel is dirty, is being spread all over the downtown and Chris is right, then the City has a problem. Would it be a violation of a law? Would the City/Tunnel be forced to correct the problem? If it could not be fixed, would the Tunnel have to be closed down?

Now that would be a fine kettle of fish wouldn't it!