Prince George Council One Week fromTask Force Report on Air Quality

Monday, October 22, 2007 03:59 AM

Haze hangs over Prince George during air quality advisory in summer of 2007 (photo, opinion250 archive)

Prince George, B.C. - The Mayor’s Task force on Air Quality will present its interim report to Prince George City Council one week from today.

The report is the result of consultation with community, government and private-sector groups. As part of the report, the Task force has also commissioned two best practices studies, one on air quality management the other on air pollution control.

Once the interim report has been presented to Prince George City Council, the task force will begin public consultation. There will be a public session on November 5^th at the Prince George Civic Centre. That session will run from 7 to 9 p.m.

The Mayor’s Task Force on Air Quality is under the direction of Dr. Peter Jackson. The professor and air pollution researcher is on sabbatical from UNBC and is the third Chair of this task force. Initially, Dr. Charles Jago was the Chair, but he resigned when he took on a position with the Canfor Pulp Income Trust. Then Howard Brunt stepped in, but he resigned when he decided to move to Vancouver Island with his ailing wife.

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Posted on Monday, October 22, 2007 03:59 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: Bridge on October 22 2007 10:08 AM

Another study. And what is the cost? All that is needed is to go to the air quality website and your study is complete.

And we have people that are worried about how air quality will effect the economy. How about our health and what is that cost to our society? There was a book written many years ago about how there are some who like to find solutions to our problems and others that just "muddle through" and the latter is where we are today.

There are all kinds of scientific solutions available for us to use but we simply ignore them and continue on with studies and more studies. Where will it all end?
When will we pick up the ball and start the game is the next question?

Cheers

Posted by: Foo738 on October 22 2007 10:38 AM

I note that Charles Jago is now on the CN conference as well.

I think we need action.

Also, the powers that be continue to pollute the bowl with their traffic decisions.

It would be a relief to have a forward looking Council that cares about its' citizens who are the real backbone of this City.

Posted by: owl on October 22 2007 2:44 PM

The new pellet plant is the largest single industrial emitter of particulates in the BCR. They are not using best available technology, teh same technilogy used by several other plants in town and other communities because their product would not be competitive.

What does that mean? The business gains they are making are done on the backs of the health of the people living in this community. Quite simple. They think their bottom line is more important than our health and safety.

Polluting our air should not be considered a right!! We should not be shitting in the place we live.

UNSAFE IS UNACCEPTABLE is the tag line of the Forest Safety Council. This should be the tag line or implied tagline for all foresty based industries, and all industries and all governments whether municipal, provincial, or federal.

Posted by: supertech on October 22 2007 5:57 PM

I can see 6 residential smoking chimneys from my window. Burning is the main cause of fine particulate less than 2.5 microns.

When my wife was teaching at Glenview elementary, the ventilation system in the winter months sucked a terrible smoke smell into the school in the mornings. Residential smoke in this city is un-acceptable and should be completely stopped. If I can see 6 from my window (downtown area) then there are a larger number of woodburners than you think. I say stop all residential woodburning for two weeks and then see the big difference.
If a little town like Golden can stop it, so can we.

Posted by: murdog on October 23 2007 1:57 AM

They have been studying this for ages. I read they don't know where the fine particulates are originating from. The above poster says the burning is the main cause of fine particulates. Hmm a lot of burning in the three pulp mills steam plants, lots of sawmill burners etc. In this day and age you would think the technology would exists that would allow sampling of the emissions from large industry to detect the level of fine particulates. Then they would have a good idea what percent these industries are contributing. I often check the BC government air quality web site, and Prince George is pretty well always the worst, followed by Quesnel.