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Mirror’s air quality to be monitored

An air quality monitoring station will likely be taking readings in a yard in Mirror by this weekend, says the executive director of the Parkland Airshed Management Zone.

An air quality monitoring station will likely be taking readings in a yard in Mirror by this weekend, says the executive director of the Parkland Airshed Management Zone.

PAMZ will be setting up the station at the request of residents who live near the rail yard in the small hamlet east of Lacombe, and at the request of area MP Blaine Calkins, said Kevin Warren.

“It was supposed to go in earlier in the week but with the . . . weather we’ve had it was delayed by a few days. . . . We’re hoping to have it off the old site (this) morning, then it’s a question of setting it up and letting it run overnight, doing the calibrations on all the equipment,” Warren said on Wednesday.

Warren attended the meeting last month where local politicians and residents discussed complaints of excessive fumes and noise from the engines idling by the rail yard bunkhouse.

The station is basically a trailer with a variety of air analyzers inside. It will stay in Mirror until the first week of June, collecting air quality readings on a constant basis.

Warren said the pollutants of interest in this case are fine particulate matter, oxides of nitrogen and hydrocarbons.

The station will be removed in the first week of June, and will be put back in December to collect readings during different climactic conditions.

If the readings exceed Alberta’s air quality guidelines, Warren said they would inform Alberta Environment.

Readings, and the eventual reports written about the readings will be available at www.pamz.org

mgauk@www.reddeeradvocate.com