Lisa Sadownik

1. Key Air Management Initiatives – National to
Regional
CASA Coordination Workshop
29 May 2012
Lisa Sadownik, Director – Strategic Relationships and Engagement
Environment and Sustainable Resource Development

2. Key Air Management Initiatives
1. National Air Quality Management System (AQMS)
3. Alberta’s Clean Air Strategy
5. The Alberta Environmental Monitoring, Evaluation and
Reporting System
7. Joint Canada Alberta Oil Sands Monitoring Plan
9. Regional Air Quality Management Frameworks

3. 1. National AQMS
• Outcomes-based national system to protect and improve air quality
in Canada and keep clean areas clean
• Federal/provincial/territorial collaboration – best placed jurisdiction
to take action
• Addresses both human and environmental health
• Comprehensive: covers all sources of outdoor pollutants, including
non-point sources, transboundary
• Aligns well with Alberta CEMS, place based approach

5. 2. Alberta’s Clean Air Strategy
• Enhancements to the existing • Incorporates the following:
Alberta AQMS
– national AQMS
• GoA (cross ministry) strategic – regional planning initiatives (e.g.
management frameworks)
direction for next 10 years
– monitoring, evaluation and reporting
initiatives
• Based on recommendations – collaborative initiatives
from CASA project team, focus – cumulative effects management
(CEMS)
groups, public open houses and
– knowledge enhancement
cross ministry working group
– continuous improvement

6. 3. The Alberta Environmental Monitoring,
Evaluation and Reporting System
• Alberta Environment established a monitoring panel in
January, 2011 to address the need for a system
– Made up of experts from across Canada, including academia and
research community
• Panel met with First Nations, stakeholders and users of
environmental data and information
• Report released publicly on July 5, 2011

7. Panel’s Key Messages
• Environmental MER is a key pillar in provincial natural resource
management
• Broader and more comprehensive system needed to support
cumulative environmental effects management
• Increased transparency and accessibility of data and information to
the public
• Increased scientific rigor and oversight
• Dedicated revenue stream
• Best delivered by an agency at arms-length from government
Minister and Cabinet will provide a comprehensive response to
the report; in the meantime…
• A Working Group is in place, and
• A CEO of Environmental Monitoring has been named

8. 4. Joint Canada / Alberta Oil Sands
Monitoring Plan
• February 3, 2012 announcement
– Joint Canada-Alberta Implementation Plan for Oil Sands Monitoring
• Objectives
– Support sound decision making
– Ensure transparency through accessible, comparable, and quality
assured data
– Improve knowledge of state of the environment and understanding of
cumulative effects using science based monitoring
– Enhance understanding of historical baselines and changes
– Understand transboundary issues with Saskatchewan and Northwest
Territories

9. Foundation of Agreement
• The Agreement covers:
– Air quality, emissions, transport and deposition of contaminants
– Surface and shallow groundwater quality, acid-sensitive lakes, downstream rivers
and aquatic biodiversity
– Biodiversity: Impacts of habitat disruption, contaminants on wildlife
• Quality assurance, data management and data accessibility will
mean sound information is made freely available to all
• Adaptive Management
– Plans and activities will evolve based on consultations with industry and other
stakeholders, initial implementation experience, results over time and increased
understanding
– Activities can be increased if important changes are detected, OR, reduced where
no significant changes are occurring and no new activity is planned

10. Air Quality Component
• Focus areas are source emissions, ambient air quality and
deposition of pollutants
• Will include:
– Enhanced efforts to monitor emissions from stacks, fugitive, mobile and
area sources
– Use of satellite images, remote sensing and air quality models to integrate
the data
– Short-term studies will provide data to guide the implementation of long-
term fixed sites and help to address knowledge gaps

11. Air Quality Component (cont.)
• Major improvements
– More monitoring sites – increase from 21 to up to 32 in 2015 over a
broader area
– More pollutants – heavy metals, PAHs and VOCs related to oil sands
activities
– Increased sensitivity – lower limits of detection
• Result
– Allow distinction between natural, point and non-point sources
– Allow better understanding of the long-range effects of air emissions
downwind, such as on acid sensitive lakes and terrestrial vegetation
– Provide better linkages to the water quality and aquatic biota components
through integration of data

12. 5. Regional Air Quality Management
Frameworks
• Existing Provincial scale management frameworks
– Particulate Matter and Ozone Management Framework
• New regional scale and management frameworks
– management frameworks, as part of regional planning, are a key
approach for cumulative effects management at a regional scale
– draft Lower Athabasca Regional Plan
– Industrial Heartland (sub-regional)
• Complementary to other policies, legislation , etc.
– one part of the environmental management system

13. Management Frameworks – Purpose and
Content
Provides context for decisions about management of existing and future
activities
• Indicators are chosen
Indicators, • Triggers & limits are set
Triggers
and Limits
• Ongoing monitoring and
Monitoring
and assessment of conditions
Modelling
relative to triggers & limits
• Management actions
taken as needed at
Management
triggers & limits
Response and • Results reported
Reporting

14. LARP Air Quality
Management
Framework
• Objective: Releases from
various sources are managed so
they do not collectively result in
unacceptable air quality.
• Ambient air quality.
• Indicators – NO2 and SO2.
• Limits and triggers based on
provincial Ambient Air Quality
Objectives.
• Limits and triggers apply across
region and will be measured at
individual stations.

15. Conclusion
• Much is happening in the ‘air world’!
• Alberta is making significant progress on numerous
air initiatives – are they tied together?
• The next speaker will describe how they are related