Alberta Environment 1, WBEA 0
Editorial appeared in Fort McMurray Today May 19, 2006
There are two ideas that quickly emerge from the rotten smell in the air this week in Fort McMurray.
The first: kudos to the Alberta government.
Environment Minister Guy Boutilier and his department seem to have taken swift, decisive action by ordering Syncrude to shut down a portion of its plant that apparently created the smell.
In the past, it's possible this type of action would not have been taken. There are lots of pressures on management and politicians to keep a plant like Syncrude running. The millions of dollars that will be lost every day will hurt shareholders and the Alberta government in terms of lower royalties.
It's possible that laws in the past would not have had enough teeth to allow a government to shut down a plant for making a stink. It's comforting to know that ideology has not weakened our current regulations.
Boutilier was constantly criticized when he was appointed environment minister in November 2004. As the representative for the Oilsands City, it was thought the MLA would be soft on offenders.
It's not true.
Nine months ago, Boutilier stood on the shores of Wabamun Lake and vowed to hold CN Rail responsible for dumping oil.
He did the same Thursday. Even though Syncrude is arguably the biggest employer in his constituency, the minister didn't pull any punches.
That's why we elected him. To represent the people, not industry, when the two collide.
At the same time that Alberta Environment and the region's MLA were living up to expectations, the Wood Buffalo Environment Association was quietly failing.
The group, a partnership of industry, the municipality and other groups interested in the region's environment, revealed that a fault at one of its monitoring stations resulted in aberrant readings Thursday.
It's a good thing Alberta Environment didn't rely on the WBEA. The government brought in its own sensors.
The WBEA website, where the group promotes its ability to provide live emissions readings from a number of locations, has been down for much of this week. Many citizens seeking answers to the smell that pervaded the region were out of luck.
If it's not functioning at a time like this, what's the point?
WBEA has never really served the interests of the average person in Wood Buffalo who wants to know if the air is safe. While presenting readings on its website and categorizing them with meaningless numbers is a technical accomplishment, it's nothing more.
No press releases where issued during the entire stinky air incident, even to discuss the link between numerical readings and health.
We need context with those numbers; we need to know what this reading or that reading means. We need to hear about how even low readings can make some people sick.
Numbers without intelligent analysis are useless.
While the WBEA may be living up to its mandate by oilsands plants to disclose their emissions, it's not making that information useful.
We need a better WBEA.
There are two ideas that quickly emerge from the rotten smell in the air this week in Fort McMurray.
The first: kudos to the Alberta government.
Environment Minister Guy Boutilier and his department seem to have taken swift, decisive action by ordering Syncrude to shut down a portion of its plant that apparently created the smell.
In the past, it's possible this type of action would not have been taken. There are lots of pressures on management and politicians to keep a plant like Syncrude running. The millions of dollars that will be lost every day will hurt shareholders and the Alberta government in terms of lower royalties.
It's possible that laws in the past would not have had enough teeth to allow a government to shut down a plant for making a stink. It's comforting to know that ideology has not weakened our current regulations.
Boutilier was constantly criticized when he was appointed environment minister in November 2004. As the representative for the Oilsands City, it was thought the MLA would be soft on offenders.
It's not true.
Nine months ago, Boutilier stood on the shores of Wabamun Lake and vowed to hold CN Rail responsible for dumping oil.
He did the same Thursday. Even though Syncrude is arguably the biggest employer in his constituency, the minister didn't pull any punches.
That's why we elected him. To represent the people, not industry, when the two collide.
At the same time that Alberta Environment and the region's MLA were living up to expectations, the Wood Buffalo Environment Association was quietly failing.
The group, a partnership of industry, the municipality and other groups interested in the region's environment, revealed that a fault at one of its monitoring stations resulted in aberrant readings Thursday.
It's a good thing Alberta Environment didn't rely on the WBEA. The government brought in its own sensors.
The WBEA website, where the group promotes its ability to provide live emissions readings from a number of locations, has been down for much of this week. Many citizens seeking answers to the smell that pervaded the region were out of luck.
If it's not functioning at a time like this, what's the point?
WBEA has never really served the interests of the average person in Wood Buffalo who wants to know if the air is safe. While presenting readings on its website and categorizing them with meaningless numbers is a technical accomplishment, it's nothing more.
No press releases where issued during the entire stinky air incident, even to discuss the link between numerical readings and health.
We need context with those numbers; we need to know what this reading or that reading means. We need to hear about how even low readings can make some people sick.
Numbers without intelligent analysis are useless.
While the WBEA may be living up to its mandate by oilsands plants to disclose their emissions, it's not making that information useful.
We need a better WBEA.
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