WBEA’s Ambient Air Monitoring Program
The WBEA has monitored and reported ambient air quality in northeastern Alberta since 1997. As part of its Ambient Air Monitoring Program, the WBEA currently operates 29 ambient air monitoring stations throughout the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo (RMWB). The WBEA’s air monitoring stations include industrial/compliance, attribution, community, background, and meteorological stations. Additionally, portable monitoring stations provide incident-based or short-term air quality monitoring, where ambient air monitoring is required for less than 12 months per year.
The Ambient Air Monitoring Program functions to address multiple objectives and scientific questions as identified in the Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act (EPEA) approvals, the provincial Acid Deposition Management Framework (ADMF), 2009 Alberta Ambient Air Monitoring Strategy, 2019-2024
Alberta Science Strategy, and the Alberta Oil Sands Monitoring (OSM) Program monitoring objectives. For more information on air monitoring objectives and requirements, as they relate to the WBEA, click here.
In addition to providing data live from each station and annual trends, the WBEA reports fully quality-assured hourly ambient air monitoring data to Alberta Environment and Protected Areas (AEPA) on a monthly basis.
The image above demonstrates how the WBEA collects ambient air data through continuous analyzers and time-integrated samplers to ensure residents and stakeholders have the information they need to make informed environmental decisions.