Letter Published in Sherwood Park News Nov. 15, 2013

Posted on November 20, 2013

Re: Heartland dilemma: pure air or low taxes?

Last week’s editorial raises questions about the air quality in the region. As Fort Air Partnership (FAP) is the group responsible for monitoring and reporting on air quality immediately north of Sherwood Park, I thought your readers might like to know that we track 19 regulated substances 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in and around Alberta’s Industrial Heartland. Our work is transparent, guided by an expert scientific advisory group, driven by national and provincial standards, and is available to anyone including university researchers.

As a non-profit, independent organization, half of our Board is made up of public members. What we collect and report on is rigorously controlled, monitored and guided by government set objectives.  We monitor for both hydrocarbons and volatile organic compounds and immediately alert the Government of Alberta whenever an air quality standard is exceeded.

And while our mandate is not to analyze the health or environmental impacts of what we record, our long history of testing shows the air quality in the area to be well within accepted guidelines most of the time.  For example, benzene exceeded the Alberta Ambient Air Quality Objective during a one hour period once in 2009; not at all in 2010; twice in 2011; and once in 2012. 

As a public service, FAP provides a daily current and forecast air quality index on our website www.fortair.org  . It is continuously updated in real time. We invite your readers to check out the index and find out more about what substances we monitor and how we monitor them.

Joy Wesley, Public Member and Chair, Fort Air Partnership

FAP’s Hydrocarbons and VOC Monitoring Program

Posted on October 23, 2013

FAP Hydrocarbon Monitoring

Total hydrocarbons (THC) refer to a broad family of chemicals that contain carbon and hydrogen atoms. Total hydrocarbons are the sum of non-reactive and reactive hydrocarbons. The major reactive hydrocarbon in the atmosphere is methane.  Major worldwide sources of atmospheric methane include wetlands, ruminants such as cows, energy use, landfills, and burning biomass such as wood.  Methane is the primary component of natural gas.

The reactive (or non-methane) hydrocarbons consist of many volatile organic compounds, some of which react with oxides of nitrogen in the atmosphere to form ozone.  While Alberta does not have ambient air quality objectives (AAAQOs ) for total hydrocarbons, methane or non-methane hydrocarbons, the oxidation of hydrocarbons in the atmosphere contributes to an increased amount of nitrogen oxides and ozone, which do have objectives.  Additionally, there are objectives for specific reactive hydrocarbons such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene, styrene and ethylene.

Table 1: Monthly average hydrocarbons (ppm) in 2012

 

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Total Hydrocarbons (ppm)

Bruderheim

*

2.20

1.97

2.04

2.00

2.05

2.08

2.01

2.06

2.04

2.19

2.60

Fort Saskatchewan

1.96

2.03

1.97

1.98

1.95

*

1.74

1.77

1.75

1.65

1.64

1.91

Range Road 220

2.05

2.11

1.92

1.95

1.95

1.95

1.93

2.33

2.04

1.90

1.92

1.97

   *data not available

 Table 2: 1 hour Maximum hydrocarbons (ppm) in 2012

 

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Total Hydrocarbons (ppm)

Bruderheim

*

4.6

2.6

5.3

8.5

6.4

6.5

6.4

6.4

6.5

6.4

8.6

Fort Saskatchewan

3.9

3.1

3.0

2.7

2.6

*

2.9

2.9

3.0

2.1

2.8

3.1

Range Road 220

3.7

3.2

4.1

4.6

3.3

2.9

2.8

*

3.5

2.7

4.0

4.5

*data not available

 

Volatile Organic Compounds

Ethylene

Ethylene is a naturally occurring compound in ambient air. It is produced at low levels by soil microorganisms, algae, lichens and plants. Other natural sources of ethylene are volcanic activity and combustion in forest and grass fires.  In Alberta, the concentration in ambient air resulting from these natural sources is typically low.  Anthropogenic sources of ethylene include combustion of fossil fuels, and processing of natural gas in petrochemical facilities (e.g. production of plastics). The AAAQOs for ethylene are:

·           1-hour average concentration                                     1044ppb

·           3-day average                                                  40 ppb

·           Annual mean                                                   26 ppb

When air quality monitoring data for 2012 in the FAP region was compared against the AAAQOs for ethylene, it was observed that:

·           There were no exceedances of the AAAQO for ethylene in 2012

·          The maximum one-hour concentration measured was 813 ppb (78% of the AAAQO)

·          The annual average was highest at Ross Creek at 4.7 ppb (18% of the annual objective)

 

A summary of ethylene concentrations recorded in 2012 at individual stations are presented in the table below. For additional information see also the station by station summaries in the appendices of this report.

 

Table 3: Monthly average ethylene concentrations (ppb) in 2012

 

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Ann
Avg

Range Road 220

1.6

1.5

1.9

1.5

2.5

1.9

2.7

2.0

6.2

2.5

1.9

2.0

2.4

Ross Creek

1.7

1.9

1.1

1.1

0.4

0.5

2.0

2.3

11.9

26.8

5.3

1.6

4.7

 

FAP records exceedances of these substances, the following table summarizes the exceedances from 2008 to 2012.

 

Table 4: Exceedances Recorded from 2008 to 2012

Parameter Measured

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

Ammonia (NH3)

1-hr

0

0

1

0

0

Benzene (C6H6)

1-hr

1

2

0

1

1

Carbon Monoxide (CO)

1-hr

0

0

0

0

0

8-hr

0

0

0

0

0

Ethyl benzene (C6H5CH2CH3)

1-hr

0

0

0

0

0

Ethylene (C2H4)

1-hr

0

0

0

0

0

3-day

0

0

0

0

0

Annual

0

0

0

0

0

Hydrogen Sulphide (H2S)

1-hr

163

15

0

11

0

24-hr

28

2

0

0

0

Nitrogen dioxide (NO2)

1-hr

0

0

1

0

0

24-hr

0

0

0

0

0

Annual

0

0

0

0

0

Ozone (O3)

1-hr

0

4

0

3

1

Styrene (C6H5CH=CH3)

1-hr

0

0

0

0

6

Sulphur dioxide (SO2)

1-hr

7

30

42

8

15

24-hr

0

2

6

1

1

30-day

0

0

n/a

n/a

n/a

Annual

0

0

0

0

0

Particulate Matter Fine

(PM2.5)

1-hr

28

47

n/a

n/a

n/a

24-hr

9

15

39

6

4

Toluene (C6H5CH3)

1-hr

0

0

0

0

0

Xylenes (o-, m- and p- isomers)

1-hr

0

0

0

n/a

n/a

 

Benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, o-xylene, mp-xylenes, total xylene and styrene (BTEX/S)

BTEX/S fall into the group of compounds known as non-methane or reactive hydrocarbons discussed earlier in this report.  These compounds are typically found in petroleum products, such as gasoline and diesel fuel and have a characteristic strong odour.  BTEX/S has been measured on a semi-continuous (four samples per hour) basis at the Scotford 2 AQM station since January 2007. The Alberta Ambient Air Quality Objectives for BTEX/S are as follows:

 

·        Benzene                               1-hr average:                     9ppb
(C6H6)

·           Toluene                              1-hour average:          499 ppb

(C6H5CH3)                             24-hour average:        106 ppb

·           Ethyl benzene                  1-hour average           460 ppb
(C6H5CH2CH3)

·        Xylenes                                 1-hour average           529 ppb

o-, m- and p- isomers      24-hour average        161 ppb
(C6H4(CH3)2)

·        Styrene                                 1-hour average              52 ppb
(C6H5CH=CH2)

·        A new annual average for Benzene was set in 2012: at  0.9ppb

When 2012 air quality monitoring data for 2012 was compared against the AAAQOs for BTEX/S, it was observed that:

·           There was one exceedance of the 1-hour AAAQO for Benzene with a 1-hour average recorded value of 9.8 ppb.

·           There were no exceedances for any of the other BTEX/S chemicals.

·           There were no 24-hr AAAQO exceedances for any of the BTEX/S chemicals.

·           The annual average for Benzene in 2012 was 0.14 ppb (15% of the objective)

 

A summary of ethylene concentrations recorded in 2012 at individual stations are presented in the table below.

 

Table 6: Monthly average BTEX/S concentrations (ppb) in 2012

 

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Benzene (ppb)

0.42

*

0.16

0.08

0.06

0.07

0.15

0.10

0.18

0.12

0.12

0.08

Toluene (ppb)

0.10

*

0.09

0.00

0.00

0.01

0.02

0.00

0.06

0.04

0.03

0.14

Ethylbenzene (ppb)

0.01

*

0.04

0.03

0.00

0.02

0.04

0.00

0.00

0.01

0.01

0.02

m,p-xylene (ppb)

0.01

*

0.02

0.05

0.00

0.00

0.01

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.01

0.03

o-xylene (ppb)

0.01

*

0.02

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

Styrene (ppb)

0.01

*

0.01

0.00

0.00

0.01

0.03

0.01

0.01

0.00

0.01

0.02

Xylenes (ppb)

0.02

*

0.04

0.06

0.00

0.01

0.01

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.01

0.04