CORNWALL – Citing lots of cigarette butts tossed along the waterfront trail, an eco group is asking the City of Cornwall to make the entire trail within the city limits a no-smoking zone.
In a letter to council for Monday’s council meeting, the Great River Network is asking for the designation for the trail from Power Dam Drive to Gray’s Creek, including Cornwall Harbour. It also wants no-smoking signs installed along the trail.
It’s not the first time the group, whose mission is to improve and protect the Upper St. Lawrence River, has asked the city to get people to stop smoking. It asked to make Lamoureux Park smoke-free in 2017 and 2018.
“Network members are very concerned that almost 30 per cent of Cornwall’s population smokes,” leading to an “excessive amount” of cigarette butts. Those butts end up in the river, polluting the water and ending up in fish who mistake them for food.
Great River Network chairman Patricia O’Hara says St. Lawrence College was declared a smoke-free campus and that has only compounded the problem as students huddle along the shoreline to get their fix.
The request will be sent to city administration to investigate.