FORT MCMURRAY, ALBERTA–(Marketwired – Aug. 12, 2013) – A comprehensive environmental field study to gather information on air contaminants in the Wood Buffalo region will occur from August 12 to mid-September 2013. The collaborative study between government, non-government, university and community partners will collect both airborne and ground-based measurements to determine how air pollutants are transformed and transported across the landscape.
The intensive study is part of the Joint Canada/Alberta Implementation Plan for Oil Sands Monitoring (JOSM), announced in February 2012. The three-year plan is designed to strengthen environmental monitoring programs for air, water, land and biodiversity in the oil sands region by better understanding the state of the environment, cumulative effects and environmental change.
The six-week field study will involve a large suite of ground-based measurements taken at two locations, including the Wood Buffalo Environmental Association’s (WBEA) Air Monitoring Station 13 – established in 2000, and located five kilometres south of Fort McKay.
The other monitoring site which is provided by the Fort McKay First Nations, is set up for the next three years to support this year’s study as well as to also collect long-term measurements in the Fort McKay community.
Both monitoring sites included in the study are in close proximity to surface mining areas and allow for air pollutant mixtures from industry to the north and south to be studied separately. The ground portion of the study is designed to track air pollution levels as close as possible to mining, upgrading, and other industrial and transportation processes. This will help determine the concentration and type of chemical compounds deposited on the ground over a wide area.
In collaboration with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), the study also includes measurements which will be conducted in the atmosphere using the NRC Convair-580 aircraft. The aircraft, equipped with air quality measurement instruments, will be used for flights over and downwind of the oil sands source region.
Additionally, the aircraft will be flying at low-altitude to collect air quality data for evaluation and validation of emissions inventories and to test satellite monitoring of nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide.
Data collected through both the airborne and ground-based studies, will be used to evaluate high resolution air quality models for use in the oil sands region. Once the quality control process on the collected data has been completed, it will be made available through the Canada-Alberta Oil Sands data portal. For more information on the Joint Canada/Alberta Implementation Plan for Oil Sands Monitoring, visit http://www.jointoilsandsmonitoring.ca.
Backgrounder: Joint Canada/Alberta Implementation Plan for Oil Sands Monitoring – Wood Buffalo Air Pollutant Field Study
JOSM Partners in the Air Monitoring Summer Project:
Academic institutions: Dalhousie University, Carleton University, York University, University of Toronto, University of Calgary, University of Alberta
Airborne Study Objectives:
Ground-based Study Objectives:
Joint Canada/Alberta Implementation Plan for Oil Sands Monitoring:
For more information on the Joint Canada/Alberta Implementation Plan for Oil Sands Monitoring, visit http://www.jointoilsandsmonitoring.ca.
Wood Buffalo Environmental Association
Melissa Pennell
780-977-8440
mpennell@wbea.org
Alberta Environment & SRD
Ogho Ikhalo
780-427-8636
ogho.ikhalo@gov.ab.ca
Environment Canada
819-934-8008
media@ec.gc.ca
Fort McKay First Nation
Dayle Hyde
780-881-5715
dhyde@fortmckay.com