Calgary's Pollution Scandal - December 9th 2006

IMPROVING OUR AIR QUALITY

If you’ve ever stood at the edge of the city on a clear, calm morning you can usually see a band of orange hanging just over the rooftops. This orange haze is nitrogen dioxide which is emitted as the result of burning fuels such as natural gas and gasoline. Nitrogen dioxide particularly affects respiratory health and is particularly harmful to asthmatics. Air pollution by nitrogen dioxide in combination with other less visible chemicals is estimated to cause 5000 premature deaths in Canada each year.

The main causes of air pollution in Calgary are vehicle emissions and emissions from burning natural gas for domestic and office heating. Vehicle emissions are very easy to reduce since approximately 90% of the problem is caused by 10% of the vehicles. How many times have you seen a bus or construction truck or sometimes a car belching smoke as it pulls away from the lights? Get that bad 10% off the road and air quality will improve immensely. It is scandalous that Alberta has no mandatory vehicle emissions standards like that in British Columbia. All that exists in Alberta is a voluntary program to crush an old car in exchange for $1,000 for a new GM vehicle or to make a contribution to the kidney foundation. Compare the air quality in the much larger Greater Vancouver area with that in Calgary and you will see how easy it would be to clean up Calgary. I wonder how many vehicles that fail the test in BC end up being sold in Alberta?

The other main improvement that can be done in Alberta would be to improve the building code so that residential and office buildings are properly insulated. The current standard of 6” thick outside walls insulated with low R value fiberglass is wholly inadequate for the Alberta climate. I don’t understand why the Alberta building code isn’t freely available on line for everyone to see how low the standards are. To see what I mean, find a house with kitchen cabinets installed on an outside wall and on a cold day, open one of those cabinet doors. You will be amazed at how much colder it is inside the cabinet than in the rest of the room. Of course, the reason why insulation standards are so low is because energy here has been so cheap. But this isn’t about the economics of home ownership, it’s about our general health and well being. Even if you don’t believe (or don’t care) that global warming is happening, at least have some thought for your health and your children’s health.

It's way past time that we put some pressure on our elected representatives to address these issues and get our air cleaned up. Looking on Ed Stelmach's website, all I could find on this topic was the bland statement "We need to protect our environment by reducing emissions and ensuring a safe and sustainable water supply. We also need to reduce emission and increase the independent monitoring of resource extraction. We cannot take chances with our water supply and air quality." That's hardly a policy! I sent Ed an e-mail on the subject, saying:

"What are your plans to improve air quality in Calgary? Currently, air quality is deteriorating rapidly due to vehicle emissions and the burning of too much natural gas because buildings are inadequately insulated? I assume it's the same in Edmonton too.

When will Alberta have mandatory vehicle emissions standards and testing like BC and the rest of the civilized world?

When will the Alberta building code be updated to improve insulation standards and promote energy efficiency?"

Perhaps he'll even bother to reply. If so, I'll post the response here.

Ed Stelmach in case you didn't know is Alberta's recently elected new premier.

Comment by David Sawers on January 22nd 2007

Interesting to note that yesterday on the local TV news it was announced that air pollution in Calgary had increased by 40% in the last year. The time to act is now.

Comment by Paul Shark on October 5th 2007

Good article, but think about this: How many people know here there is a better quality gas which is burns more efficiently therefore you can go more miles and burn better your car gas?

On the Calgary Autoshow I had to go and ask an expert because when I ask "why you can't buy gas with 95,98 octane level", everyone was looking at me like "what the hell?!"
The reason why isn't in use because cost money, the same thing with emissions.This province is behaving like an ostrich if they have to solve a problem, do not solve it put your head into the sand.
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Then problem goes away.....we call for wake up, Wake up Canada!!