PACHA Marks it's Third Clean Air Day

Wednesday, June 03, 2009 12:21 PM

Prince George, B.C.- The People's Action Committee for Healthy Air says there hav been some successes in the efforts to improve air quality in Prince george, but a lot more needs to be done.

Today is Clean Air Day, the third such day since PACHA came to life in 2006.

PACHA counts the successes as follows:

Asphalt regulations have been put in place in Prince George that have made a difference for the residents of North Nechako.
There is greater attention being paid to this issue by politicians at both a municipal and provincial level. PACHA beleives the increased attention is a result of Northern Health taking this issue more seriously .
The recognition that high particulate levels are a serious health risk to the community and that the social cost of odor and poor air quality is significant.
PACHA sees both industry and the Ministry of Environment take this issue more seriously and take steps towards the implementation of better technology on industrial sites of emissions

The disappointments are:

Prince George is still rated by the BC lung Association as one of the worst cities in the Province for Particulate pollution and there seems to be little urgency in dealing with the situation.
There continue to be a significant number of episodes with effect the health of our community and specifically those with chronic respiratory and heart problems.

PACHA says there are solutions:

The residents and community of Prince George need to continue to work to find ways of reducing emissions. This includes those coming from older wood stoves but especially those coming from industrial sources using old technology.

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Posted on Wednesday, June 03, 2009 12:21 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: The Real Moses on June 3 2009 1:08 PM

Here, Here, Amen, Preach it PACHA!

Let's keep the issue front and centre until there is real and significant progress. There are solutions that are good for our health AND good for our economy.

Posted by: Chester on June 3 2009 10:19 PM

How about some action from our Federal representatives? CN Rail, Diesel emissions?
Got to include all of the stakeholders to have any real long term effect.

Posted by: iwundery on June 4 2009 8:00 AM

I remember clearly Pat Bell telling the audience at PACHA's AGM prior to the election that he was confident that they could deal with CN. That is, the Province could take a role in bringing CN to the table, deal with the diesel (change to electric?), and hopefully reduce the tremendous noise that they produce by shunting 24/7.

Currently CN does not attend the stakeholder meetings because they don't have to, no one there has any jurisdiction over them. They obviously have no incentive.

So let's see the province and the Feds work together with CN to solve their dirty polluting practices within our airshed. And let's put some timelines down so we have some actual goals to work towards. Surely there must be some way to encourage them.

After all, they don't own the land that they run their trains on, as I understand it, we do.