Provincial regulations have helped St. Albert blow past its 2020 target for pesticides, says the city’s environmental manager.
City environmental manager Leah Jackson presented a summary of the 2011 Report on the Environment to the Environmental Advisory Committee (EAC) Thursday. The annual report tracks the city’s progress towards eight water, land and air-related goals outlined in the 2009 Environmental Master Plan.
Jackson said the city zipped past its pesticide reduction target: residential pesticide use was about 48 per cent below 2006 levels in 2010, the most recent year for which data was available. The city had aimed to get to 25 per cent below those levels by 2020.
The main reason for this drop was a province-wide ban on weed-and-feed, Jackson said — a popular herbicide-fertilizer combination product that often applied 10 times more pesticides to lawns than necessary. That ban kicked in last year, and the city hadn’t accounted for it when it set its pesticide target.
The city will likely set a new reduction target when the environmental master plan is reviewed in 2014, Jackson said. “It might be more related to water quality,” she noted — the amount of pesticides detected in the Sturgeon River, for example.
City residents continued to save more water than they did last year, Jackson said, using just 262 litres per person per day — down four litres from 2010. The city plans to bring in a water conservation strategy later this year, she noted.
It wasn’t all good news, however. St. Albert’s residential greenhouse gas emissions rose 2.21 per cent last year, according to the report, putting the city five per cent above its 2008 levels. The city has aimed to get its residential emissions to six per cent below 2008 levels by 2020.
“Every municipality that has growth is dealing with this,” Jackson said of the rise. More growth means more vehicles, she explained, and vehicles are the second biggest source of emissions in St. Albert.
But communities like Whistler, B.C., prove that you can grow without raising your emission levels, she noted. “It can be done.” The city will create a greenhouse gas reduction plan later this fall.
Waste production was down again this year, according to the report, with residents tossing just 137 kilograms of trash per person per year — about 32 kg less than 2010. The city kept about 58 per cent of its trash out of the landfill through composting and recycling as well, putting it within reach of its 2020 target of 65 per cent.
The city also plans to install two new grit interceptors this year, according to the report, which could help it get closer to its goal of keeping 90 per cent of the sand it dumps on winter roads out of the Sturgeon River.
The full report will be available in Wednesday’s Gazette and online at www.stalbert.ca/report-on-the-environment.
City residents are cashing in on toilet rebates, say city staff, and will soon have another chance to get themselves a rain barrel.
City environmental co-ordinator Meghan Myers gave the EAC an update on the toilet rebate program this week. The program, which started this year, gives residents a $50 to $75 rebate if they replace one of their toilets with a dual or low-flush model.
They’ve given out 21 rebates since the program started on March 19, Myers said, totalling $1,350. There are also about 178 applications waiting in the queue for approval — so far, just five have been disqualified.
Myers reminded residents that only toilets with the WaterSense seal of approval qualify for the rebate. The rebates are also first-come, first-served — the rebate fund will be about a third gone if the city approves all the applications now it its queue.
Rain barrels will also be available at city hall’s front desk starting May 1, Myers added. “We have about 500 to sell this year,” she said, and they’ll probably sell out fast.
Each 189-litre barrel costs $50, Myers said. See www.stalbert.ca/rain-barrel-program for details.
