Province vows to step up monitoring of gravel pit dust
Portable devices mimic ones used to check air quality during wildfires
Air quality around city jails and two schools is now being monitored following continued complaints of dust from northwest gravel pits.
Last week, Alberta Environment and Parks officials set up particulate monitoring posts near the Calgary Remand Centre, the U of C veterinary campus, the Bearspaw Christian School and another rural location to measure dust from half a dozen gravel operations in the area.
The move follows continued dust complaints from residents and readings from contractors’ measuring devices that last year showed provincial air-quality standards were exceeded repeatedly at the Stoney Trail Aggregate Resource (STAR) mine on 85th Street NW.
“There’s been concerns and complaints that have been raised — it’s been highlighted now as a priority for us,” said Marty Collins, manager of the ministry’s air monitoring group.
The group had hoped to have the stations set up last spring but logistical challenges prevented that, he said.
Two years ago, the province had been monitoring the area’s air quality, “but the results came back inconclusive, the project didn’t last very long and the conditions weren’t right,” said Collins.
Smaller particulate matter produced by gravel crushing operations can lodge deep into lungs and other tissue, creating a toxic, even potentially carcinogenic effect.
“This monitoring is health-driven … we’ve set the standards and we need the ability to classify the data,” said Collins.
The portable devices are the same ones used to monitor air quality during wildfire episodes.
Monitoring results posted online by the BLV Group that operates the STAR mine have shown levels of both total suspended particles and the more dangerous PM 2.5 particulates have been below pro- vincial standards so far this year.
Local resident Bertha Staddon said the noise and dust produced by the STAR pit is often so bad during the summer, her family leaves for weeks to escape it.
“One year when it was really bad, I thought, ‘I can’t do this again, I’ll literally lose my mind.’ ” said Staddon who has lived on Rocky Ridge Road for 16 years.
The monitoring program, she said, is welcome news, though it remains to be seen how seriously it’s undertaken and if the data will lead to any changes.
“It’s good they ’re actually trying to measure exactly what’s going on … What they do with that information I don’t know, and who enforces it?” said Staddon who.
Alberta Environment’s Collins said the monitoring program will extend through next winter and possibly the spring.
He hopes the data will eventually be posted online for the public.
There’s been concerns and complaints that have been raised — it’s been highlighted now as a priority forus.