Nothing But The Facts, Please: One Man's Opinion

By Ben Meisner

Spending thirty grand on an air quality forum in this city might be alright as long as the people conducting the forum are prepared to get down to the nuts and bolts of the air quality problems in this city.

Since I arrived in this city in1974 we have had air quality problems.

32 years should have been enough time to determine who the polluters are and set the wheels in motion to force them to correct that problem.

We had been told to suck it up; it after all is the smell of money.

We have been told that the stink is really not harmful to you; we have been told that we are to blame  for the other pollutants in the air.

In the last implementation plan, we stopped the practice of back yard burning in the bowl area, we tried to place restrictions on the use of wood burning stoves and, according to the latest report, there was some progress made with industry.

What progress?  How much have they reduced their emissions?  Because when you look for these facts the shelves are bare of factual information.

We know who the air polluters are in the city; we just don’t have the guts to get on with the job of dealing with them.

We took great pride in saying that we have closed down the last bee hive burner in the city. That took place some years ago, and just how many industries are presently operating on permits? 

The asphalt plants are yet another matter. Complain as you may, by the time the testing has taken place and the companies have been given ample time to clean up their act ,another year has passed and the testing must start all over.

Instead we have taken the hammer to the average Joe in the city.

Just how many complaints have been received of people burning wet leaves, garbage etc in their fire pits?  Let’s see those statistics and the actual complaint sheets before we head off on another witch hunt.

If the clean air forum hopes to achieve some ground, it had better come to the party with clean hands, they have to be prepared to say just who are the polluters in this city and they have to come clean and tell us just what the back yard fire pits have done to worsen the situation.

Until today all we have received is talk and when it comes to  back yard burns,  it sure seems like someone is just "blowin’ smoke".

I’m Meisner and that’s one man’s opinion.

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