There's Something in the Air

Thursday, August 04, 2005 04:03 AM

The Province is set to pony up 35,000 dollars to do a new study on air particulates in this city.

This announcement comes after it was revealed that PG has exceeded national levels for particulates on many occasions.

The new equipment will test the levels over the next two years, with a view to seeing who contributes to the problem.

The 35 grand is part of a province wide expenditure of $ 500,000 dollars.

Now are we going to keep studying the problem until we can come up with a result that does not blame the major mills and the refinery? Because we have studied the air quality to death.

Remember the Air Quality By law? That was the one that said you cannot have a wood burning stove, cook your wieners on an open fire, or (heaven forbid) have Grammas cook some pies on a wood stove during air quality days .

The by law that the city passed didn’t have any teeth to it, for example, go after restaurants that barbeque their food. One of those units spews out more particulates than all of the Grammas put together!

Who else does the bylaw cover? Sorry, didn’t want to go after industry, the problem of the large mills and the particulates that they dish out every day, sorry they weren’t included. The refinery which has been labeled as one of the worst contributors? No they were exempt as well. As a matter of fact, they received extensions on their air quality over a number of years earlier on from city hall.

So we hit the back yard folks, the people that burn wood, some of them because they don’t have the money to buy gas, and the little old lady who still likes to cook on her wood stove.

Is the province now hoping that by doing yet another study that someone will come up with a result that says it isn’t industry who is the culprit or are they simply afraid to do anything about the air quality in the region?

That, is one man's opinion.

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Posted on Thursday, August 04, 2005 04:03 AM in Views by Ben Meisner

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Comments

Posted by: Death to Socialism on August 4 2005 9:11 AM

Clean the damn streets more often. It's not just smoke that affects air quality.

Posted by: Opatcho on August 4 2005 10:00 AM

Your right on target Ben. It is very strange that a lot of Grandma's bake all her pies after a couple of days of sunshine. and there must be a lot of them because the air quality at the BCR industrial site and around the monitor on Plaza 400 goes up to any where from 25 to 50 and up ppm. Like you said Ben they are just stalling for time. There are five air quality monitors around Prince George at the present time and these results are given on the Enviroment Ministries website every day.
And I wonder why we fire up our wood stoves on bright sunny days?

Posted by: gypsy on August 4 2005 11:04 AM

Hey!!!Do you think they are once again trying to lead us down some garden path????
They have reached the point whereby we must consider them ridiculous. Going to pacify us with a measly $35000.00 bucks and a tall tale of some sophisticated equipment for that petty cash being put to work to solve the pollution problem. They really figure we are a bunch of dumb bells, and as Ben would say, "bush bunnies." Well, methinks there could be some proof in that determination.
It is true-our streets are filthy, and dirt flies. And of course we exempt the companies that pay wages, the old "exceptions to every rule" when finger pointing.
Prince George has had a stinking pollution problem since the pulp mills went into operation. That good old sewage treatment plant sure emitted some nose boggling odours, but I think it is piped way further out into the good old Fraser, and solidly contained until it is let loose.
Anyhow, Prince George has been a "hold your nose frequently" city for many years, and major health problems have been experienced by many citizens due to pollution. I am sure the Health authorities will attest to that.
The truth of the matter is-we will never be told the truth!!!!

Posted by: owl on August 4 2005 11:20 AM

This new monitor comes some 10 years after the local ministry staff responsible for air quality monitoring told us that UNBC will be able to identify the source of the air pollutants using collection filers at Plaza 400 and running them through tests at their labs. About a year ago I had the opportunity to ask what happened to that and was told that the results were inconclusive or something to that effect.

Now we are at it again. In the meantime a decade has passed and very little has happened. Why is Prince George suddenly showing up on the radar as the nation’s worst air quality city when it comes to PM? Are we monitoring better than most other cities thus others who should be up there as well are not showing up, or are other cities improving faster than we are?

Particulate Matter has various sources, including road dust. We used to have high levels of PM during the spring cleaning period when the city would sweep the streets without water during stagnant air days. They are taking much better care now so that we see little of that.

As I understand it, the source in the case of road dust is silica which is not as toxic as sources which are carbon and sulfur based. It is those last two, and possibly others, which should be our main concern.

PM, if not directly emitted, is formed from Nitrogen Oxides, whose source is high-temperature combustion processes such as car engines and industrial plants, and Sulphur Dioxide and other gases reacting in the atmosphere. We are beginning to monitor PM2.5, a particle 4 times smaller and considerably more dangerous to our health since it gets ingested more deeply into our lungs. Sulfur is a major precursor to PM2.5. Surprise!

I am still trying to figure out whether people in responsible positions are ignorant or are feigning ignorance. I realize it is a science which we are still learning about when it comes to the actual effect on our health. However, I am a believer in the notion that when it comes to our health and safety, we should err on the side of caution.

Back to the University. We hear of all sorts of other studies they do which relate to life in this city and region. Does anyone else find it strange that when air quality is of concern to our citizens, that UNBC seems to not be interested in it? Is it the Canfor Theatre which might give them second thoughts on occasion?

Posted by: Opatcho on August 5 2005 9:48 AM

Grandma's cooking apple pie today. Air quality at the BCR Indusrial site monitor is 56 ppm at Plaza 400 its 35 ppm and at the CBC Transmitter its 1 ppm. Grandma should be out in the garden I would think and probably is.