The Town of Whitecourt is on its way to getting an air monitoring station.
Town council recently met with representatives of the West Central Airshed Society. The Society is a non-profit organization that monitors air quality across west central Alberta.
Some communities that work with the Society to monitor air quality include Drayton Valley, Hinton, and Edson.
The Society would like to work with the Town to put an air monitoring station in Whitecourt. The Society noted it is unusual for a town the size of Whitecourt to not have an air monitoring station yet.
The Society also noted that while Millar Western Forest Products and the Province of Alberta do some air monitoring in Whitecourt, it is nowhere near as extensive as the Society’s air monitoring.
Town council was very enthusiastic about the Society’s proposal.
“People in Whitecourt want to know what their air quality index is, and I think it is a really good idea and an opportunity to work with the West Central Airshed Society,” said Whitecourt mayor Tom Pickard.
One thing Whitecourt town council was not enthusiastic about, however, was the Society’s proposed location.
The Society wanted to place the monitoring station in Rotary Park.
The monitoring station is a medium-sized shed. Council felt it would look out-of-place in Whitecourt’s most popular park.
The Town still wants to participate in the project though.
“We feel that we need to find the right location, and so we tasked our administration on giving us some options on where the monitoring station might be,” said Pickard.
The Society outlined that the location must meet four requirements: it needs to be far from buildings and trees, it needs access to power, it needs to be easily accessible to their technicians, and it needs to be in a high-visibility location so the public can see it working.
The Society has also proposed to work with the Town to ensure that the monitoring station will match its surroundings.
