City of Kimberley council has been brought up to speed on air quality in the Cranbrook-Kimberley area.

Paul Willis, an air quality meteorologist with the Ministry of Environment Kootenay Region, Dr. Ilona Hale of Kimberley and Wildsight’s Erna Jensen-Shill appeared before council Feb. 13 to showcase a recently completed report and outline the state of air quality in the area, which Willis noted is “rather disappointing.”

Air quality suffers in the winter because of the use of wood burning stoves and other wood-heat appliances, he said, explaining how particulate matter – “a product of incomplete combustion” – becomes a major concern for the young, old and ill.

The dangerous type of fine particulate is (particulate matter) PM2.5, Willis said, explaining the fine size of the matter is easily breathed in by people.

“There are other combustion products that contribute to PM2.5” but in the region it is mostly wood smoke that is the cause.

“We all, as citizens, can anecdotally sense this, as well,” Willis said.

Emissions, topography and meteorology all play a role in how air quality shapes up, he said, showing a map of the Cranbrook/Kimberley areas, with coloured areas indicating where conditions are the worst. In the Kimberley area, a band following the highway from Marysville into the city centre, and Marysville, appear to have the worst air quality.

“Marysville is a relative hot spot,” Willis said, noting there are likely “a lot of woodstoves” in the community.

Dr. Ilona Hale explained the reasons why people should care about air spaces laden with PM2.5.

“Basically, we all know tobacco smoke is a problem” but many people don’t stop to consider what threats wood smoke and other forms of smoke pose.

All by-products of combustion “are bad,” she said. “Obviously, people who are sicker have more problems.”

It isn’t just people with asthma who are impacted by reduced air quality, Dr. Hale continued, noting a “less obvious effect is it can also have an effect on your heart.” Blood clots and other problems can result, she said.

“We really should be caring about these things. I hear people say I can’t go outside because I can’t breathe,” she said, adding that poor air quality also seeps indoors and impacts people.

Some people end up in hospital emergency rooms when their asthma “flares up enough,” she said, adding some people have also died from poor air quality.

“I think it is a responsibility for us as a community to do what we can. This hasn’t yet really been addressed in the same way” as cigarette smoke, where laws have reduced peoples’ contact with tobacco emissions.

Jensen-Shill said inefficient burning of fire wood remains the chief cause of particulate in Kimberley and Cranbrook.

“We know wood heating is part of the East Kootenay experience,” she said, noting more education is needed to help curb people from burning green or unseasoned or treated firewood, or from using old stoves.

Jensen-Shill then asked council to consider “another arm or another tool to address this,” adding that 30 B.C. municipalities have bylaws in place addressing wood smoke.

Wildsight is willing to work with the city on the ongoing problem, she said. “It’s complex but we’ve got some great science here,” she said, noting the study that has been done in the area, which followed a 97 km route from rural Kimberley to Cranbrook, around rural Cranbrook and back to Kimberley.

The wood stove exchange program initiated a couple of years ago by the Regional District of East Kootenay resulted in 225 stoves exchanged, with about 40 in Kimberley, “which is fantastic,” Jensen-Shill said.

Coun. Darryl Oakley enquired about the possibility of a pellet stove program being considered.

Jensen-Shill replied it could be considered but stove dealers and consumers are often “a little but reluctant” to go that route.

Coun. Albert Hoglund then asked about fire places. “I have a fire place and we burn seasoned wood and it burns hot,” he said.

Jensen-Shill said fire places are “extremely inefficient.”

Acting Mayor Jack Ratcliffe said he appreciates the work done on the air quality study.

“It’s a very complex, excellent report,” he said.

Ian Cobb/e-KNOW

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