'Suspicious item' in east Windsor determined to be air quality monitor

Police responded to the area of Radcliff Avenue and Blair Street for what police described as a "suspicious item" in Windsor, Ont., on Thursday, June , 2024. (Stefanie Masotti/CTV News Windsor)

The all clear has been given following an investigation in east Windsor on Thursday.

Just before 8 p.m., crews were on scene in the area of Radcliff Avenue and Blair Street for what police described as a "suspicious item."

According to police, the item was a cylinder strapped to a light pole with a red flashing light — determined to be an air measuring device as the hill was previously a landfill.

Radcliff Avenue was closed between Little River Road and McNorton Street but has since reopened.

According to city of Windsor Engineer Mark Winterton, the device is used to monitor air quality near the former landfill.

"As part of our perpetual care requirements with the Ministry of the Environment, we are required to do air and leachate monitoring throughout a given year and report that to the ministry," Winterton explained. "So simply what happened here was we had an air quality monitor and we had an equipment failure that required us to go and replace some batteries."

Winterton stated there was no danger to the public or any concern regarding the local air quality at any time, noting the landfill was decommissioned in the seventies and was then converted into parkland in the early nineties.

"As with all closed landfills, it is a requirement of the former operator of the landfill, in this case, the city of Windsor, to undertake perpetual care and monitoring of that landfill, which includes review of any leachate, any air quality issues, methane that might emit from it and take any necessary actions to mitigate anything that might be off side.”

"Luckily we haven't had anything off side. This landfill has been here for decades and in this circumstance, since the early 90s, without any major concern.”

Winterton added, "We stay up on the monitoring as is our requirement and if there were ever any issues that the public was concerned about, they would report it to 311, we would investigate and take appropriate action. So, there's nothing in the 30 plus years that this has been in this condition, that has raised any major concerns with the Ministry of Environment."