where are our MLAs and MPs in responding to concerns about our air here?

Same place as when people were looking for answers to the pine beetle problem.

This isn't going to be solved overnight unless the industry is forced to shut down or curtail production and lay people off if immediate relief is demanded.

Why did the City not take the lead by purchasing a fleet of vacuum sweepers to go out and clean up big time every time the roads get bare and expose the dust which begins to permeate the airshed?

"where are our MLAs and MPs in responding to concerns about our air here?"

Yes, precisely, where are they or better yet, where have they been???

Too busy. The question is: "Busy with what?" Afghanistan, Olympics, partisan political warfare, etc.....I bet.

More power to PACHA, somebody has to take the bull by the horns if those who should be doing it are AWOL.

Actually the city does have a fleet of street cleaners. Cost money to operate them so only done in the spring time but I do like your idea !

I think what the first thing on PACHA's agenda should be is to push for a moritorium on any new industry setting up shop in Prince George that would worsen our already terrible air quality.

The internet and web sites like opinion250.com are a fantastic invention. It is going to be very interesting to see if they can have a significant influence on upcoming municipal, provincial, and federal elections. At the very least they will make the incumbent politicians sweat a little bit, because after all the most important thing on any politician's agenda is to get reelected

PACHA has a good "dream", but I can't see it happening....so one day they will awake and see that wonderful dream of theirs is just that....
The companies making most of the polution are making most of the money!
If they only realized we live in a hollow in this fair earth and if the wind doesn't blow the crap just hangs around...that is life. So until we either move the producers of smog etc out of the area, or move ourselves, or can find big fans to move the air about, I dont' see much happening.......so inhale....

Anyone noticed the expansion of the Refinery? Was it an $80 million expansion? I drove into town today and was smelling the refinery, not necessarily the pulp mills. So, who was involved in this project and was there any effort to reduce, rather than increase the polution coming from this business? Chester

Judging by the picture it looks like we need a BIG vacuum cleaner. Maybe if we "water bomb" parts of our city as we clean up with good ol' industrial strength "Pledge" furniture oil, maybe we can get the housewives of the city to go outside and dust everything they can reach before the vacuum cleaner comes by.

You know guys and gals, there is such a thing as fog. It tends to hang in the valleys all along the rivers in BC and other parts of the world.

If you want to take pictures of pollution, the best place to take it from is on University Blvd or someplace around there in mid day towards the downtown. Or maybe on a bad air day from a downtown street towards airport hill.

There is a considerable difference between a pollution filled haze and a natural morning and late evening fog.

That picture was taken on one of those nice foggy fall mornings which typically clear up. The most one might get is a good whiff of H2S from the pulpmills overnight.

The $80 million dollars was a clean-up operation. You might recall that they had to scrub sulphur out of their product since it did not meet the national standard for gasoline. They were complaining about the expense.

So, the result is a cleaner product coming out of the tailpipes of our cars, once we get new converters installed, since high sulphur gas neutralizes catalytic converters thus putting a whole bunch of other chit into the air.

One of the things we need up here is one of those vehicle exhaust testing stations as they have in the GVRD.

In addition, the plant itself is also putting less chit into the air.

PACHA is calling for voluntary emission curtailment. What PACHA does not tell you is that the plants are doing that everytime they improve theior technology.

Go directly to the NPRI site for the Husky plant and you can see the general drop in emissions over the years.

http://www.ec.gc.ca/pdb/querysite/facility_history_e.cfm?opt_npri_id=0000000405&opt_report_year=2005

Here are the emissions for 2005 showing the key pollutants put into the air.
[url]
http://www.ec.gc.ca/pdb/querysite/facility_substance_summary_e.cfm?opt_npri_id=0000000405&opt_report_year=2005[/url]

The problem is that each time the plants make an improvement by reducing the emissions into the air, they make another major investment which means their plant has a longer life expectancy.

From my point of view, what should have happened with the Husky plant is that it should have been relocated out of the bowl, and the $80 million re-tooling gone toward the construction of a new plant in a location outside of the bowl and a location where it could have been expanded in the future.

There should be government "incentives" available for that.

The city will tell you that we have sites for that within the regional district. The fact is, every single one of them is just plain old land, several not even taken out of the ALR. Few, if any have any services nearby. None have services extended to the site to the best of my knowledge.

Such a site needs to be environmentally sound with geothermal or some other similar energy source available. That is where a community energy system is required.

http://www.ec.gc.ca/pdb/querysite/facility_substance_summary_e.cfm?opt_npri_id=0000000405&opt_report_year=2005

One other thing to remember is that PG's primary pollution problem are particulates.

Husky -
Total PM 13.900 tonnes
PM10 - 10.200 tonnes
PM2.5 - 6.500 tonnes

Canfor's two mills closest to town
Total PM 735.382 tonnes
PM10 - 503.134 tonnes
PM2.5 - 275.344 tonnes

SO2 is roughly the same for both operations.

Husky emits about half the VOCs that Canfor's two mills do.

The thing we really should find out about with respect to Husky and others who burn carbon containing fuels is what types and quantities PAHs do we have hanging around in our downtown air?

A large part of your future pollution will be coming from China's coal burning electrical plants. These plants have little if any pollution controls, and the pollution that goes into the air eventually makes its way to North America.

I suggest that to reduce this pollution we discontinue selling coal to China as it is detrimental to our health. We should also ask other Countrys to do the same. In addition we should not buy these cheap Chinese products because it only encourages them to continue to pollute.

Its highly unlikly that we will close down our Coal Mines to reduce pollution in China, nor will we stop buying their products, so we will have to find other ways to reduce pollution. This is a Global problem, and if we cannot solve it locally then we dont have a hope in hell of doing it on a global basis.

Mexico City is one of the most polluted Citys in the World. Do you know anyone in Prince George who really cares???, and if they do what have they done about it??.

PACHA is a start, however these problems will have to be solved soon or the human race will go the way of the dodo bird.

All those in favour of having Wide Body, polluting, Air Cargo Jets, landing and taking off in Prince George, and those in favour of a Woodwaste burning Co-Generating plant on the East End of the City, raise their right hand.

I drove to Houston on Friday night and encountered 3 beehive burners stoked to the max cranking out emissions from burning hog fuel. How about just enforcing some basic rules to eliminate at least the polution coming from these units? Back yard wiener roasts pale in comparison, yet that is who our city watchdogs harrass. Chester