SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Thousands of plastic bristles being left behind on downtown streets from snow-clearing machines are nagging at the mind of at least one municipal politician.
An employee with Arctic Farmer who only wanted to give his first name John, uses a mechanical broom or street sweeper on a sidewalk downtown on Monday. He said his unit is not responsible for leaving bristles behind on sidewalks. In fact this street sweeper uses smaller, metal bristles, not the larger blue and orange plastic ones that are scattered throughout the city's core. - John McFadden/NNSL photo |
City councillor Adrian Bell said he has e-mailed city administrators to see what can be done about the litter problem. Most of the plastic bristles are either blue or orange and have been left behind by manually-pushed street sweepers which resemble a snow blower, or by the larger, bobcat-style snow sweepers.
Bell said more than anything else, the bristles are an eyesore.
"It's litter. It's going to be very difficult to pick those up and they aren't going anywhere," Bell said. He added he also has concerns the bristles could end up in the sewer system.
"I wouldn't call it an environmental crisis but we are definitely looking into it because we need to find out how this is happening and how we can stop it."
The city is responsible for at least some of the bristles left behind, according to Chris Greencorn, director of public works and engineering.
"We are having discussions to see what can be done about the bristles that are left behind," he stated by e-mail.
The city doesn't "believe them to be an environmental hazard and the bulk of them will get collected by street sweeping activities that will commence in the spring," said Greencorn, noting they'll be treated as any other piece of litter.
Elvis Brown, operations manager for Northview Commercial, formerly Northern Property REIT, said the company uses the sweepers to clear the sidewalks from in front of the 10 buildings it owns downtown.
"When you first buy a new broom (sweeper) it's like buying a new car with crappy tires. They don't come with the strong industrial bristles. The first couple times you use them they will leave bristles behind, Brown said. "We've upgraded ours with metal bristles so that we don't have that problem. Our guys do pick them up as much as they can but we do clear the sidewalks almost every day."
Arctic Farmer is one of the companies contracted to clear sidewalks downtown. Owner Darwin Rudkevitch is confident his sweepers aren't leaving
bristles behind.
"I don't think it's coming off the little brooms we use. I surveyed them the other day and the ones we are using are just a white bristle," Rudkevitch said. "I don't see any of them laying there. They also seem to be intact." Indeed, when Yellowknifer spoke with an Arctic Farmer employee who was using a sweeper downtown this week, he pointed out the bristles on his machine were shorter and a different colour. None of them were found on the sidewalk after he finished sweeping on 49 Street near Franklin Avenue.
Paul Falvo, a co-founder of Yellowknife's downtown spring cleanup, said he too has concerns about the bristles, which somewhat mirror Bell's.
"If they are getting into the sewer system and then the lake then we are dumping plastic into the lake and that's never ideal. Stuff eventually breaks down and it's not good when it does." Falvo said, however, that it's important to have safe, navigable sidewalks downtown, adding people have to weigh whether it's worth it to have these bristles left behind on the streets and sidewalks versus having safe pathways
for pedestrians.
