The Parkland Airshed Management Zone (PAMZ) held their annual public concerns meeting last night (May 17th) in Ponoka.

According to PAMZ Executive Director Kevin Warren, the meeting was to help decide where to set up their portable monitoring station in 2019.

The portable monitoring system, named after Martha Kostuch, a well-known environmentalist from Rocky Mountain House, helps PAMZ understand and address air quality concerns in central Alberta.

"It's set up to monitor a whole broad range of compounds, so it gives us a pretty good idea of what the air quality is like".

Warren notes their region is large, running from Three Hills west to the BC border and from Crossfield north to Ponoka, so there are always different concerns in different parts of the zone.

"Some people might have more oil and gas related concerns, some concerns might be more around confined feeding operations, some maybe more about typical air quality issues you have in a city like motor vehicles, sewage treatment, that kind of thing".

PAMZ portable air monitoring station is complemented by other regular monitoring.

"PAMZ currently has 4 what we call continuous stations, 3 of them are permanent, 2 are in the City of Red Deer, one is out in the country side near Caroline and then we have this portable. In addition to that we have a network of what we call 26 passive monitoring stations, so they are quite simple, they just sit outdoor monitoring a few parameters and give us an indication of what air quality is like over the long term".

The portable unit is a continuous trailer that can monitor air quality to the nearest minute.

In 2017, PAMZ used the portable station in the town of Sundre, with concerns from residents about emissions from gravel pits.

Warren also encourages people to do their part, pointing to something as simple as leaving the lights on, which can contribute to polluting the air.

He notes most of the energy in Alberta comes from a coal fired-generating plant.

"If you think about it, every time you flip a switch, you're making a plant run...anything that reduces our energy footprint is the biggest contribution you can make towards improving air quality."