Ambient Air Quality Study To Carry Through To New Year

By 250 News

Prince George, B.C. - The ambient air quality monitoring program for the North Nechako area is now guaranteed to run until at least the end of January.  Recently, the City of Prince George contributed $5,000 to the project which is funded by the City, industry and the Ministry of the Environment.

The ambient air quality monitoring project started in July and was to run to the end of the year, but Barb Beyer, the Acting Environmental Quality Section Head for the Ministry of the Environment says they would like to carry on for another full year.  “We would like to see some data over the winter months to see what the air quality is like when the industry is not in operation”.  The industry she refers to is the paving industry.  It was the emissions, noise, and odour of the asphalt plants which sparked the North Nechako and Heritage residents to press for air quality improvements.  The ambient air quality data is a cornerstone for future decisions about industry along the Nechako River.

The data that has been collected so far will be analysed and a full report will be prepared   early in the new year, Beyer says by that time they should have more information on the impact of wind directions as well.

Beyer says an application has been filed for more funding to keep the project going until at least the end of 2008.  In the application there is a request to purchase the monitoring equipment which has been rented on a month to month basis.    

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