St. Albert Catholic High’s air quality study has come back inconclusive after forest fire smoke swamped out its results. SACHS students published the results of their two-week air quality study earlier this week.
In late April/early May, SACHS biology teacher Neil Korotash had his students use a portable air quality monitor to track weather and air pollution levels in the school’s parking lot. The plan was to get baseline readings for a week and then open a long-closed side gate to the parking lot, which was often crammed with idling vehicles. The students predicted opening the gate would improve traffic flow and reduce air pollution in the parking lot.
The students took baseline readings from April 24 to 28 and readings with the gate open from May 1 to 5. While the students observed less congestion in the parking lot in when the gate was open in week two, their readings showed levels of particulate matter actually went up because of smoke from wildfires north of St. Albert.
The school’s air monitor also vastly underestimated the amount of particulate matter in the air, said Grade 11 student Jordan Rivero. While the school’s monitor reported a roughly 29 per cent increase in this pollutant between weeks one and two, the Alberta Capital Airshed’s monitor in Salisbury Park just two kilometres away detected a 120 per cent increase. The students have sent their monitor to the ACA to test its accuracy over the summer.
Because the students could not filter out the effects of the wildfire smoke, they could not tell if opening the side gate had any effect on air pollution, Korotash said.
“Our conclusion is we need to do more research.”
Korotash said the experiment was still a valuable experience for the students, adding that he hoped to repeat the test next year with a better air monitor.
Rivero said the experiment was interesting, hands-on work.
“It’s not just sitting in a classroom mindlessly listening. We actually get to see it in person.”
Korotash said the experiment’s results will be posted to the Mission: St. Albert Facebook page in the coming days.
