pha odalb Le win rier, eveuiicaudy, july id, lyyu

Rian Maelzer
ff Reporter

The Minisiry of the Environ-
it wants to know exactly what
ge Meadows residents are
thing.
Che ministry is set to install new
testing equipment at Pitt Mead-
: Airport to allow monitoring of
ider range of pollutants, Mike
y, head of environmental moni-
ng, told The News.
[he new equipment will be tied
» the Greater Vancouver Re-
il District’s air-monitoring sys-
_ with the readings being trans-
ted directly to the GVRD head-
rters in Burnaby.
trom a trailer at the airport, en-
mMment ministry equipment al-
iy measures levels of the air-
ne pollutant ozone, ef nitrogen
Jes and of suspended particles
he air.
fhe GVRD uses the readings to
together a daily Air Quality
ex to advise of pollution levels.
Jnce the new equipment is in-
led, the ministry will also be

able to measure haze levels,
sulphur dioxide and carbon mon-
oxide.

One of the new measurements
will be for “co-efficient of haze.”

“It’s a way of measuring par-
ticulates so that it (the readings)
can be incorporated into an index,”
Gow said.

_ To measure the haze, air is
drawn through a filter tape about
one-inch wide. As the particulates
accumulate, a sensor reads any de-
crease in light passing through the
tape.

In the Lower Mainiand, sulphur
dioxide is produced primarily by
oil refineries. it probably is not a
major problem in Maple Ridge and
Pit: Meadows, Gow sald.

“We just want to see how much
of it is coming there from the west,
from the Port Moody area.”

Although it tends to disperse in
summer and can be overshadowe
by other pollutants such as ozone,
carbon monoxide is potentially the
most major pollutant in. winter, he
vid.

it occurs “anywhere there is a

high density of traffic.”

The new equipment will cost
about $50,000, Gow said, and
should be installed some time in
August. The main-delay now is.
getling a larger trailer to fouse the
equipment...

The GYRD operates about 20
air-monitoring stations In the
Lower Mainland, while the envi-
ronment ininisiry hes stations at
Pitt Meadows, Abbotsford and
Chilliwack.

‘ Meanwhile, the GYRD is hop-
ing to open a toll-free line to allow

ir
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interac-
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est levels

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ight. A lung-imi-
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people throughout the Valley to

phone for air-quality information.
increasingly, the GVRD and
Ministry of the Environment are
working with the federal and pro-
yvincial.governments, and even

with agencies south of the border
to increase their knowledge of air
ollution and its causes, says Ken
tubbs, ambient air analyst for the
GVRD.

The Lower Mainland and Fraser
Valley have ta be viewed as part of
the same “air shed” as parts of
Washington State, he said.

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