Free transit, trees, and tours of the city's new air monitoring station will blow through town this Wednesday as St. Albert celebrates Clean Air Day.
June 8 is Clean Air Day and Arbor Day in St. Albert this year. The annual events are meant to raise awareness of the importance of trees and air pollution reduction for the environment.
"Clean air is absolutely important for respiratory health and enjoying outdoor activities," said City of St. Albert environmental co-ordinator Erin Isaac, and Clean Air Day is meant to celebrate that natural resource.
This year's Clean Air Day celebrations kick off at 9 a.m. in Salisbury Park by Vital Grandin School with a ribbon cutting at the city's first permanent air quality monitoring station.
The $250,000 station touched down in the park behind the Sturgeon Heights Reservoir last November and has been operational since mid-April. The station gives St. Albert residents real-time information on the state of their air.
The station is part of a network of four others meant to track air pollution throughout the capital region, said Farron Bibby, a technologist with the Alberta Environmental Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting Agency that manages those stations. This one will track levels of carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx, common in acid rain), ozone (a part of smog), and PM2.5.
PM2.5 refers to particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns (about 1/36th the width of a human hair) that can penetrate deep into the lungs and cause heart and lung disease, reports Health Canada.
PM2.5 levels soared to 263 parts per billion from 11 in just three hours last May 19 when all that smoke from Fort McMurray blew through town, data from the St. Albert station suggests. The city ranked a 9 out of 10 (high risk) on the Air Quality Health Index for most of this time, Bibby said.
The station is a room-sized box wrapped in colourful artwork with three posts sticking out the top. Atop one post is a claw-like anemometer, which uses four ultrasonic sensors instead of the traditional spinning cups to measure wind speed. (It's got spikes on it so the birds don't land on it, Bibby noted.) Another features the cone-shaped intake for the CO, NOx, and ozone sensors inside the station. The third has a metal object with a glass jar attached. The jar is to catch any rain that gets in, while the metal object catches particulate matter. There are also two beige accordion-shaped devices that track temperature and humidity.
Air from the cone-shaped intake travels down a glass pipe into three computers that use glowing chemicals, gold mirrors, and UV light to calculate levels of CO, NOx, and ozone, Bibby explained.
The particulate matter drops onto a strip of white paper in a neat circle. Radioactive beta rays zap through the paper to a detector that calculates the amount of particulate matter. Bibby noted that bugs sometimes get through to the paper, which can lead to wonky readings.
Visitors on Clean Air Day will get guided tours of the station and see some snazzy kites swoop through the air, Isaac said. Cranky's Bike Shop will offer free bike safety checks on site.
Free rides and trees
Residents can get to the party by taking St. Albert Transit, which is offering free rides on all its buses during Clean Air Day.
Riding a bus reduces your greenhouse gas emissions by about 60 per cent compared to driving a car, said St. Albert Transit spokesperson Will Steblyk.
"It is a cleaner way to travel."
St. Albert Transit will produce even less air pollution this fall once its zero-emission electric buses arrive, Steblyk continued. St. Albert will be the first place in Canada to own electric buses when they do.
About 550 Grade 1 students will clean the air Wednesday by planting trees at Grosvenor Park as part of Arbor Day in St. Albert.
As usual, students will get to plant white spruce trees, check out a live owl, learn about trees from city officials, and take in a performance by St. Albert entertainers Rooney and Punyi, said city community recreation co-ordinator Cameron Nattress.
