What actions are being taken?
Alberta Environment, the airshed organizations, and industry continue to monitor carbon monoxide around the province. Alberta has adopted Environment Canada's most rigorous air quality objectives for carbon monoxide. In Alberta, the one-hour objective for carbon monoxide is 13 parts per million, and the eight-hour objective is 5 parts per million.
The decreasing trend in carbon monoxide in Alberta is largely the result of continued improvements to vehicle emission control equipment since the 1970's. Some of these improvements include the introduction of catalytic converters, oxygenated gasoline, and more recently the introduction of electric-gasoline hybrid vehicles. Climate Change Central, in partnership with the Clean Air Foundation, has launched a campaign to encourage Alberta drivers to turn in their older, polluting vehicles for scrapping and recycling. These older, higher-pollution vehicles are called “Gross Emitting Vehicles” - those vehicles that emit 5 or more times exhaust than when new.
Numerous Alberta initiatives are under way in this area. In 1998, the Alberta ROVER Project (Roadside Optical Vehicle Emissions Reporter) monitored vehicle emissions of carbon monoxide in Calgary, Edmonton, Red Deer and Canmore. Carbon monoxide emission levels are considered to be a good indicator of overall vehicle performance. If carbon monoxide concentrations are high, emissions of other contaminants are likely to be high. Eighty-one per cent of the Light Duty Vehicles tested were considered to be clean (vehicles had carbon monoxide exhaust emissions of 1% or less). This 81% of the vehicles only accounted for 18% of CO emissions, while 7% of the vehicles (Gross Emitting Vehicles) were responsible for 54% of carbon monoxide (CO) emissions.
ROVER monitoring of vehicle emissions continued in 2006 and confirmed the findings of the previous study, that actions need to be taken to accelerate the removal and/or repair of gross emitting vehicles in Alberta. Four identified options to address gross emitters are anti-tampering regulations, enhanced scrap page, a hot line for visible emitters and an inspection and maintenance program using the remote sensing technology used in the study. The study report has been referred to Alberta Environment, which will explore these and other options to develop a plan to reduce the impact of gross emitters in Alberta and report back to the CASA Board in mid-2009.
In 2008, the City of Edmonton proposed a bylaw to restrict the idling of vehicles. Public meetings and a survey were conducted and concluded in November of 2008. In January of 2009, Edmonton City Council voted against implementing the anti-idling bylaw, and decided instead to launch an education campaign for one year to incourage people to stop excessively idling their vehicles. For more information, please visit the City of Edmonton’s backgrounder on the effects of idling.
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