Clean the air Wednesday
City residents can help clear the air next Wednesday by taking a free ride on a St. Albert bus.
June 6 is Clean Air Day in St. Albert and the city is urging residents to park their cars and bike, walk, or bus where they need to go.
St. Albert Transit will be offering free trips on its buses all day to encourage people to give transit a shot, says St. Albert Transit spokesperson Dawn Fedorvich. Regular bus riders will also get a chance to win one of seven monthly bus passes.
Transportation is the second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in St. Albert after homes, according to the city’s 2010 greenhouse gas inventory report. Vehicles belch out about 226,780 tonnes of globe-warming fumes a year in the city – equivalent to burning about 3,000 tanker trucks of gasoline, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Cars are also a significant source of air pollutants such as sulphur dioxide, which causes acid rain, and ozone, which leads to smog.
Transit can reduce this pollution by reducing the number of cars on the road, Fedorvich says. “A 40-foot bus can hold 39 passengers, so that’s an extra 39 cars we take off the road.”
St. Albert’s greenhouse gas emissions rose another 2.21 per cent last year, according to the most recent state of the environment report, which puts the city about five per cent above its 2008 levels. The city has aimed to reduce its emissions to six per cent below 2008 levels by 2020.
The city hopes to get funding to create a greenhouse gas reduction strategy from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities by the end of June, says environmental co-ordinator Kalen Pilkington.
Pedal power
St. Albert Catholic High students will get $10,000 worth of pedal power this fall thanks to a grant won by a local teacher.
BP Canada announced Thursday that St. Albert Catholic High teacher Kathy Krystofiak has won $10,000 as part of the company’s annual A+ for Energy contest. The contest provides grants of up to $10,000 in support of innovative projects that teach energy conservation. Some 42 of these grants were awarded this year.
St. Albert Catholic bought two Pedal-A-Watt bike stands last year after getting a $3,600 Environmental Initiatives Grant from the city, Krystofiak says. The stands convert bicycles into generators, letting students exercise and generate emissions-free power. “They’ve made smoothies with the blenders their bikes are powering.”
The bikes have proved very popular, Krystofiak says, so she entered this contest to get some more. The grant should be enough to get the school six more bike stands this fall, which she hopes will give students enough juice to power DJ equipment during a dance. “We want to run Christmas lights at Christmas time.”
Check the water
Residents can also help the province keep an eye on the state of the Sturgeon River Tuesday by using some free water quality test kits.
June 5 is Alberta Water Quality Awareness Day. Organized by the Alberta Lake Management Society, the event is meant to raise awareness about the state of the province’s waterways through hands-on testing.
This is the sixth time that the society has held this event, says spokesperson Arin MacFarlane-Dyer. It was originally an annual event, but they made it once every three years after 2009 because it was so resource-intensive.
The society has distributed about 1,000 free water quality test kits, MacFarlane-Dyer says, and has asked residents to use the kits on local water bodies sometime between May 1 and August 31. Their results will be compiled into a report that will be posted on the group’s website.
The kits use colour-changing chemicals, a thermometer and a sticker to test acidity, oxygen levels, temperature and turbidity, MacFarlane-Dyer says — all important indicators of watershed health.
Biologist Debbie Webb says she’s used the kits before with the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology’s (NAIT) Sturgeon River research group, and has been pleasantly surprised by their accuracy.
NAIT researchers have found that oxygen levels in the Sturgeon hover around four to seven milligrams per litre at this time of year, Webb says, which is in-line with provincial standards for the protection of aquatic life.
The river’s water tends to be slightly basic (pH over seven), she continues, and is pretty cool (12 to 14 C) – traits that make it hospitable to most life. But all the dirt washing into the river has also made it pretty turbid, which can interfere with fish development.
About 2,000 people took part in Alberta Water Quality Awareness Day in 2009, according to the lake management society’s website. That year’s round of testing found that about 90 per cent of Alberta’s water bodies had pH levels that were between seven and nine — ideal for most aquatic plants and animals.
The group is out of free kits, MacFarlane-Dyer says, but is still selling them for $10. Visit www.awqa.ca for details.
