Dear Action Line: I drive by Burger King almost every day on the way to work and I’m always confused when I see the train plume in the middle of the day. … Then I realize it’s the restaurant’s exhaust. Is there anything they can do to reduce? Outside of people not stopping there? – Aaron
Well, hold the pickles, hold the lettuce. We all have things that do upset us.
When receiving questions, Action Line takes pride in clearing the air. This time, it may not be easy. We may just have to live with that flame-broiled burger smell – or flame-grilled smell, or whatever that smell is.
Action Line took the tack that the impetus for change would have to come from outside the company. Maybe our local health department has some say about what is spewed into the air? And that brought up a question within a question:
Dear Action Line: Who exactly is running our health department right now, and do we even have one? – Wander A. Lowd
Most readers are aware of the demise of the San Juan Basin Public Health Department, which had been around a long time. Longer even than our Burger King. As of about a year ago, the transition began from a regional department that combined La Plata and Archuleta counties to county-based entities. We asked La Plata County folks where this process stands.
“SJBPH will be dissolved on 12/31/2023 and no longer exist,” said Peter Diethrich, interim environmental health director with San Juan Basin Health.
He said that most current staff members will go to work for one of the two counties’ new health departments.
“Citizens of La Plata County will hopefully not notice much of a transition,” Diethrich said.
Getting back to the original question, neither the current nor future public health entities will have jurisdiction over the Burger King air. Guess you can’t always “have it your way.”
Diethrich explained that the health department does not regulate the grill exhaust from restaurants – just food-and-handling procedures.
“This is not something that is monitored as it would require an entity to monitor every restaurant’s exhaust, and no one has the capacity for that at this time. There are more dangerous exhausts to monitor … but no one monitors that kind of thing specifically.”
Air quality is monitored, but mostly for particulates, ozone, carbon oxides and nitrogen oxides. The Southern Ute Indian Tribe’s Air Quality Division does some monitoring, and has some interesting data on its website. Diethrich said there are plans for La Plata and Archuleta “to conduct limited air quality monitoring in the future.”
Dear Action Line: I live on a snow route, two houses away from an elementary school. I am very aware of the need for sidewalks to be cleared of snow and the limitations of snowplows. I am happy to dig out my driveway every time the plow comes by, but the sidewalk is another matter. Where is the line for the city’s responsibility for NOT burying the sidewalk that I have just shoveled? – Chris
Dear Chris: Action Line feels a lawsuit coming on, and will try to play peacemaker here. This is a tricky and exasperating situation that pretty much every town in America above roughly the 35th parallel deals with every winter.
Chris is not the only one who wrote Action Line about this. A reader named “Snow Burned” acknowledged how plow drivers clear the streets “when most of us are blissfully asleep.” But bemoaned that as for moving snow, “We're no match for their 18-ton trucks.”
Action Line is fully aware there’s nothing worse than arriving home at 6 p.m. after a rugged day’s work to find that not only has deep snow been plowed across your driveway and onto your sidewalk, but it has frozen solid. So much for sitting down, relaxing and sipping your favorite post-work, stress-relieving beverage.
Action Line contacted the city’s public works department for a response.
During snow events, city plow operators “do the best they can to try and prevent snow and ice from going up onto the sidewalk areas,” said Joey Medina, public works operations manager. He acknowledged that “it’s very difficult to remove once it thaws and goes back into the freeze state.”
“We ask that as city residents remove snow from the sidewalk area, they place it either in the greenbelt area or in their yard and not throw it out into the city street. When we have troubled areas in the city, we will coordinate to have removal done from (those) when time permits.”
There. Happy? Didn’t think so. There’s no good answer. This is and always will be an impossible situation. Action Line asks residents and plow drivers to be thoughtful and courteous, and is comforted by the knowledge that Santa keeps track of who is and who isn’t.
P.S. – The Durango Herald staff is working on a story that will go into more detail about city codes in regard to snow removal. Coming soon to a driveway or newspaper rack near you.
Email questions and suggestions to actionline@durangoherald.com or mail them to Action Line, The Durango Herald, 1275 Main Ave., Durango, CO 81301. Answer to last week’s trivia question, which was: Who is No. 2 all-time in receiving yardage at Fort Lewis College? That would be area native Alfonso Garcia, who is head football coach at Ignacio High School.
