Transportation’s Impact on Air Shed Discussed
Wednesday, March 28, 2012 @ 3:59 AM
Prince George, B.C.- The impact transportation has on the Prince George airshed, and the efforts underway to minimize that impact were the key issues up for discussion at the Prince George Civic Centre last night.
The discussion was part of the dialogue series set up by PG AIR.
Dennis Fudge from the Ministry of the Environment says nearly 19% of all PM2.5 ( fine particulate) matter in the Prince George airshed, is the result of transportation activities. That having been said, he also noted the levels of PM 2.5 have dropped significantly over the past few years, peaking only during the recent forest fires and rising slightly in the downtown area when George Street was under construction for the installation of the new downtown energy system.
There are a number of efforts underway to minimize the impact from transportation activities, including a green fleet policy being adopted by City Hall, which has them switching some vehicles to propane, reducing idling and purchasing an electric vehicle later this year.
CN has often been blamed for being the largest contributor to the pollution as created by the transportation sector. Dave Sutherland, the Regional Manager for Environment with CN Rail, says the railway has made significant improvements over the past few years, including retiring 157 older, fuel guzzling locomotives “I think you will find CN is not the big boogie man some have made us out to be”. He says CN will be adding 161 new and refurbished locomotives to its fleet this year and next, and it’s expected the new, or upgraded models, will achieve significant savings in fuel consumption and emissions.
How many of those new models will be located in Prince George is not known, but Sutherland says the old BC Rail locomotives have been put out to pasture because they were just not efficient enough. He says the railway is looking to make the trains more fuel efficient to save dollars so it is the most cost effective transportation option for customers.
In Prince George, there is also a concern about the dust that is kicked up at the CN rail yard on First Avenue. Sutherland says dust suppression is used at least twice a year, and the water truck has already been on site this year to spray the area. With 10 trucks of lumber and 12 of pulp arriving at the intermodal site each day, there are efforts to reduce the emissions from that traffic, by making the drivers take a “reservation” which specifies when they can bring their trucks on site for unloading.
He says even though CN is hauling 23 % more cargo, their particulate matter is down by 25%.
Terry Robert, CEO for Prince George Air wrapped up the session saying “There is no silver bullet when it comes to resolving the issues that challenge the Prince George airshed. It is always a matter of multiple choice, but the key is, the right tool has to be used for the right job.”
Comments
make more dust, make more jobs.
The pothole situation is PGs way of giving people an incentive to walk or take a bus. Now I understand the master plan.
“Dennis Fudge from the Ministry of the Environment says nearly 19% of all PM2.5 ( fine particulate) matter in the Prince George airshed, is the result of transportation activities.”
So where is the other 81% coming from? Let’s keep dancing around the real heart of the matter, shall we?
Here we go!
Can’t fill the potholes because part of the process is cleaning the hole with compressed air. This process creates dust so we can’t fix the holes.
“he also noted the levels of PM 2.5 have dropped significantly over the last few years”
Duh! And a lot less people shop downtown now. Wait until the parking meters come back, the PM 2.5 levels will drop even more. all this hoopla over air quality but anyone with age and wisdom will remember 25 years ago when they used to give us rebates to install propane and it was 1/2 the price of gas. Is it now? Do they give incentives to move over to propane still? Is it easy to buy everywhere? No! But they’ve begun mass producing diesel vehicles which produce 40 times the amount of harmful emissions, as a gas engine. Who are they trying to fool. Oh and it really makes sense that the giant fuel guzzlers are now twice as big (crew cabs with duellies) so big they don’t fit in most parking spaces or lots. Should we mention that the electric cars were all confiscated and destroyed by GM. Who are we kidding? Maybe some naive young people buy into this crap but pollution issues are big oney making scams..Oh, and the pulp mill spews out lilac smelling fresh air (if you are are really into BS). Shame on these fresh air scammers. This horrible town has very poor air quality and these scammers have done nothing to improve things except lie about the air quality everyday as my asthma turns to COPD. Ask any doctor, our air quality is toxic and big business pays for these scammers to mask it and pretend they are trying. Terry Robert should give his head a shake.
Dave Sutherland? …. Now there is a familiar name … ;-)
“Dennis Fudge from the Ministry of the Environment says nearly 19% of all PM2.5 ( fine particulate) matter in the Prince George airshed, is the result of transportation activities”
So, if many sawmills have basically shut down thus reducing that source of PM2.5, it would stand to reason that the contribution from the rail yards, roads, diesel transports, and even automobiles given as a % distribution would stay high or even grow, even though the total emissions are down.
Surely there is a better method of reporting out on the total contribution made by the different sectors, including an estimate of what part of the transportation sector to work on to have the greatest effect.
Diesel locomotives? chip trucks? busses? diesel F350 crew cabs? VW diesels? the entire city fleet of vehicles? Unpaved downtown city streets? …. oh, and those new vehicles with properly working catalytic converters.
Start up a couple of sawmills and voila, the transportation sector contribution goes down to 15%. SUCCESS!!! without lifting a finger.
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