Air Quality Advisory Decision Expected In Hours
By 250 News
Haze hung over City of Prince George yesterday as warm weather held in fine particulates. Photo Opinion250 staff
We should know in a couple of hours if the Air Quality Advisory for Prince George will be lifted. Ministry of Environment’s Dennis Fudge said he had hoped to remove the advisory yesterday, but the fine particulate matter ratings were still in the double digits in the early afternoon so he felt it was wise to leave the advisory in effect for review this morning.
While the residents of the city would find themselves in contravention of by-laws if they burned wood, or swept up dust from their yards, industry kept pumping it out yesterday. A black plume of smoke could be seen from the intersection of Foothills and North Nechako Road yesterday morning. (<- photo)
At first look, one could have mistaken it for a forest fire, but closer investigation (phot at right)found the source to be a portable asphalt plant operating near the Foothills Landfill, supplying asphalt to the Chief Lake Road rehab project.
The Ministry of Environment’s Maureen Bilawchuk says the portable plants are covered by the same legislation as the permanent operations, and must pass a "stack test" for emissions. They also have set back rules to ensure they are not operating too close to streams, residential areas or other businesses.Previous Story - Next Story
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Posted by: owl on September 7 2006 8:23 AM
The other pictures to get on such days as we have been getting recently are the greyish emissions from the pulp mills which can be seen driving east on 5th in the morning "rush minutes" (luckily we do not have any real rush "hours" here) similar to the picture on the left above. These are not the whitish plumes which are steam more than anything else I believe.
BTW, the emission from the plant is not supposed to be 100% opaque like that, I believe. That thing must be 200 feet tall before one can see partially through the plume.
Maybe the individual at the MoE could be asked to comment on whether that is in compliance with the permit.