Kitimat Airshed to be Studied
Friday, October 4, 2013 @ 3:59 AM
Kitimat, B.C. – With LNG plants, a proposed oil refinery , an existing aluminium smelter, and a possible crude oil port operation in the future, the Province is pumping money into a study of the Kitimat airshed.
The $650 thousand dollar study will look at the cumulative effects of the existing and proposed industrial air emissions.
The study will focus on sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide emissions from the facilities, and the impact those emissions have on human health from direct exposure, as well as the impact on water and soil and vegetation.
The Province is issuing a request for proposals to conduct the study which must be completed with a final report to the government by the end of March 2014.
The Province has hired a contractor to start collecting surface water and soil samples. The data collected will be made available to the successful proponent chosen to complete the airshed study.
Comments
Just come to Prince George and look at its air quality and cancer rate! Not all that smell is the Pulp Mills fault.
I agree with NoWay ..not only is it the pulp mill but also the refinery.
Its also all the traffic in the bowel, along with those diesel burning busses.
This city does not have that much traffic compared to the 75 or so larger cities in Canada. Local cancer rates are compared to the national average rates. Larger cities make up a dominate portion of the national rate.
There would have to be something unique about our traffic to be a prime cause of our having one of the poorest air quality records. Possibly we have more diesel operated trucks close to the population base.
The same goes for rail as well. Most cities have rail yards close to the population base. Maybe ours is closer to a proportionately larger population base.
To determine why we have a higher cancer rate with some high degree of certainty is not an easy task.
that should have been “dominant” :-(
Is not the city being in bowl a good part of the issue? Generally poor air circulation.
That is certainly a factor.
However, in a province or state or country with deep river valleys, especially when coupled with a high degree of low wind days, that is not a unique physical feature.
In addition, PG is not one bowl. The area to the east of the bypass is lower than that to the west. The area to the east of Edmonton St is another step down to the bowl. Then there is the South Fort George level.
We also have different population centres. CH has a significant population as well as the Hart. Both are higher than the bowl(s).
ALL our heavy industrial areas are located at the lowest rather than the highest level since that is where the river and the rail is. Again, that is not unique to this City. That is how industries in cities grew all over the world, around their initial main transportation routes â oceans, rivers, then rail, then inter urban highways, then airports.
We do not have the best instrumentation at the various locations in the City which have unique characteristics. The best is at plaza 400, then there are the BCR and Gladstone School.
That is speaking about air quality. The confounding factor in PG is that we have a higher rate of smokers as well as a number of other factors which can affect lung cancer and lung diseases in general. In addition, we have a low population which means the degree of certainty of any epidemiological study is lower than with a larger population base.
They already have enough info on this airshed. This is pure BS. A waste of our money once again. Into whose pockets will the cash fall this time?
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