Clean air insurance

Times Contributor  

 

Albertans think we live in a province with fresh, clean air. Yet, last February, Edmonton and Calgary were put under air quality advisories. A study printed in Environmental Health Perspectives in Feb. 2013, concluded that Canadians are suffering increased cardiovascular incidents leading to death, due to breathing in small amounts of particulate over the long term. 

Alberta Environment noted concerns over air quality levels in the Calgary region since 2007 and requested air monitoring take place. The non-profit group, Calgary Region Airshed Zone (CRAZ) agreed to be the monitor for air quality in this region. CRAZ visited Wheatland County Council on April 16, to recap the importance of air quality and give their recent information for our area.

“We have made a commitment to update the municipalities every three years and this is the most accurate data available,” said Jill Bloor, Executive Director of CRAZ to Wheatland County council.

The group collects data through passive and continuous monitoring systems placed throughout Alberta. Placement maps, daily air quality numbers and the specific readings can be seen on their website at www.craz.ca. 

CRAZ data also goes to the provincial and federal government for formulating environmental decisions. The group is currently funded through the Alberta Government, memberships and private donations. 

“We are keeping our fingers crossed that we will continue to get the funding that we had hoped for,” said Bloor.

CRAZ recently acquired specialized mobile readings truck through a funding partnership donation. The drawback is the mobile unit requires calibration before and after it makes readings. Calibration can cost from $7,000 to $10,000 each time. CRAZ told councillors they would like to have the unit available for monitoring emergencies, but just don’t have the funding to do so.

Passive collectors run about $800. Wheatland County has four passive samplers in its boundaries.

The collectors monitor acid-forming gases that may affect vegetation growth and animal and human health conditions. They monitor pollutants and particulate matter. The data is analyzed, taking into consideration topography and air flow variables. Levels are calculated for carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, ozone levels, total hydrocarbons, hydrogen sulphide, sulphur dioxide, and particulate matter such as dust and smoke. These enter the air through industrial and manufacturing facilities, transportation emissions, biogenic sources and agriculture activity. 

The air quality index is rated on a one to 10 scale, with 10 being very high risk and a recommendation that people avoid strenuous outdoor activity and children, elderly and those with health problems stay inside.  Pollutants are graded on a one to 100 scale, with readings of 1-25 being the best. Bloor qualified the maximums reflect the point where gases damage health. 

“Overall, Wheatland has good quality air, it ranges one to three, where you want it to be all the time,” said Bloor. 

Bloor said most of our higher levels are due to transportation emissions from commuter traffic and oil and gas emissions. Quick changes can occur with changing weather patterns, like wind blowing forest fire smoke from BC. Calgary’s February advisory was from a fire on the TsuTsina Reserve.

This year, CRAZ representatives have been doing public education sessions with schools and Co-op stores, to make people more aware of things that effect air quality. They also have worked with employers to evaluate their businesses and implement safer conditions for their employees. 

“We pride ourselves that we are the first monitoring program to get out and deliver education programs, “said Bloor.

Councillor Brenda Knight indicated that she would like to have areas in her riding monitored and analyzed. However, Bloor replied CRAZ did not have the resources to do special monitoring. She said special monitoring, emergencies or complaints were usually directed to the ERCB. They qualified that people often called because of odours, but an odour can be a complex combination of materials.

CRAZ representatives cautioned trying to interpret data from a single months monitoring.

“The September charts and maps refer to the passive monitoring data during the month of September only. You cannot derive any broader conclusions from just one month of passive monitoring data. Ideally  you need approximately 3 years of data that would give 36 data values (1 data value per month) for the purposes of trend-analysis,” said Mandeep Dhaliwal, CRAZ Air Quality Program Manager.

Wheatland County pays an $828.50 annual membership to CRAZ. Councillors discussed whether the membership brought value for ratepayers. CAO Alan Parkin questioned that the data had been collected for ten years and wondered why the stations data was still limited. Wheatland has been a member for four years.

Councillor Alice Booth felt the awareness and education programs were valuable, but expected information that is more precise. 

“Down the road, they can tell us what is happening in the Airshed. They are new. If anything goes over four or five, they can tell us. It goes to what our future readings may be,” said Councillor Ken Sauve.

Four council members supported renewing the CRAZ membership and 2 opposed, keeping Wheatland as a member for another year.