Over the last several weeks, the air quality in Western New York has taken a hit with smoke from Canadian wildfires. There was a time when Buffalo didn’t have to import massive amounts of air pollution to block out the sun and cause breathing problems.
With a “thick black pall” hanging over Buffalo, Mayor Bernard Dowd lead the charge for the creation of tougher anti-smoke laws and a smoke-abatement bureau “under the supervision of a college-educated engineer” during the particularly smoky summer of 1946.
Both Loblaws and Robert Hall are long gone – but the view on Delaware just north of Sheridan has only recently taken on a completely new look.
The law called for a new Bureau for the Prevention of Dense Smoke and the Reduction of Air Pollution, to be administered by the Department of Health. Proposed fines included $250 for “each unlawful emission of smoke dust and soot.” Each belch from a smoke stack would count as a separate fine. No building stack or locomotive would be allowed to emit dense smoke for any more than one minute at a time, and no more than six minutes during any hour.
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The law also took into consideration the many complaints from around South Buffalo factories and would bar all “injurious quantities of dust, soot, cinders, noxious acids, fumes and gasses.”
Injurious was defined as “substances discharged in such quantities as to be readily perceptible to the senses of sight or smell for periods of five consecutive days at any point near any plant shall be deemed injurious.”
Among the most vocal in opposition to the ordinance: the railroads.
Through much of the second half of the 1800s, Doll’s home – then on the outskirts of the city – was also a hotel, stable, restaurant and tavern for travelers.
“If such an ordinance is adopted, it’s going to be virtually impossible for us as railroad men to make a living,” said George West, chief smoke inspector for the New York Central.
Meanwhile, The News Editorial Board was strong in supporting new legislation.
“(Buffalo) has had a smoke-abatement ordinance for more than 20 years, but it has been little regarded. … This city has taken action to clean the supply of water which all do not necessarily have to drink, but thus far it has done practically nothing to clean the air which we all must breathe.”