AIR QUALITY HEALTH INDEX
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AIR MONITORING STATIONS
View data from each station:
- Fort McKay (AMS 1)
- Mildred Lake (AMS 2)
- Lower Camp Met Tower (AMS 3)
- Buffalo Viewpoint (AMS 4)
- Mannix (AMS 5)
- Patricia McInnes (AMS 6)
- Athabasca Valley (AMS 7)
- Fort Chipewyan (AMS 8)
- Barge Landing (AMS 9)
- Albian Mine Site (AMS 10)*
- Lower Camp (AMS 11)
- Millennium (AMS 12)
- Syncrude UE-1 (AMS 13)
- Anzac (AMS 14)
- CNRL Horizon (AMS 15)
- Albian Muskeg River (AMS 16)*
*Note: AMS 10 was retired due to mining in the location. It has been replaced with AMS 16 which is 4km SE of the former AMS 10 site.
Data Management & Processing
In 1997, the Wood Buffalo Environmental Association assumed the responsibility from industry for monitoring of air quality in north eastern Alberta, Canada.
The WBEA airshed covers 70,000 km2, and includes the Athabasca Oil Sands Region (AOSR). WBEA operates 15 continuous air quality monitoring stations throughout the AOSR. Integrated sampling is conducted at 7 of the 15 stations and passive monitoring occurs at 40 additional sites. WBEA also operates a solar-powered continuous meteorological and air quality measurement system at remote locations to support terrestrial environmental effects monitoring.
Hardware Improvements
Recent improvements to WBEA`s data collection system hardware in monitoring stations include:
- installation of sensors to monitor the status of support systems for the analyzers and sensors which collect www.wbea.org air quality and meteorological data
- upgrade of communication lines from monitoring stations from telephone to DSL (internet)
- computer networking of all stations with the monitoring operations center\
- upgrade of data loggers from deprecated models to the new Campbell Scientific CR300
- re-writing of data logger programs to standardize algorithms across the network
- delay daily zero and span tests if an air quality episode is in progress
- rotate the hour of daily zero and span tests throughout the month
- accessing the internal self-monitoring electronic systems inside air quality analyzers, to transmit information about the status of analyzers to the operations center for review by network operators
These upgrades improve effectiveness and efficiency in network operations and management by allowing access to monitoring stations and systems from anywhere over the internet, and making more information accessible and available for review and detection of operating issues.
Data Collection
Data collected by continuous monitoring station data loggers is transmitted to a central operations server and then on to storage in WBEA`s central database, which is a PI data historian from OSIsoft Inc.
Population of the database with the historical record of final 1-hour data back to 1997 is complete. A link in the members section on www.wbea.org allows WBEA members to download continuous raw and final data.
A computerized information system called Sample-It has been created to guide the integrated sampling process, and forward information recorded at each step to the lab along with exposed samples for analysis. Sample-It also receives and stores data from laboratory analysis in a Microsoft SQL Server database. Sample-It is being populated with the historical record of integrated sampling results.
A web-based documentation system called Doc-It allows entry of information by operations personnel at monitoring stations (or any web-enable location), and retrieval by anyone in the system, including management and data processing personnel, for data quality review purposes and routine processing. A data monitoring utility called Watch-It monitors continuous data in the PI database in near real time for programmed conditions such as flat-lines in data or exceedence of air quality guidelines.
Routine Data Processing
Routine continuous data processing includes daily review of recently collected data from air quality analyzers and meteorological sensors, and daily review of air quality analyzer zero and span check results. Daily review ensures proper instrument operation and identifies potential malfunctions for investigation. Monthly processing includes data summary, validation, and baseline correction of air quality measurements for analyzer drift. Data are further reviewed by WBEA as an acceptance test before generation of monthly compliance reports and distribution to various locations including the WBEA PI database for continuous data, the Clean Air Strategic Alliance data warehouse, and WBEA members.
Enhanced Data Processing
Data collected by continuous monitoring programs which include a regulatory compliance purpose are often inadequate for science-based environmental effects monitoring. WBEA’s routinely produced validated and baseline-corrected data are being reprocessed with sophisticated statistical techniques to provide data that satisfies requirements of environmental effects research. These requirements include calculation of concentrations where measured concentrations are less than operational detection limits and greater than operating ranges of air quality analyzers.
The enhanced WBEA data management system presents an opportunity to undertake and develop utilities to support and streamline the data processing and other data-centric routine tasks.