Bow Valley Clean Air Society 

The Calgary Region Airshed Zone (CRAZ)

The Calgary Region Airshed Zone Society (CRAZ) is a non-profit association comprised of government agencies (federal, provincial and municipal), non-government organizations, industry and the public.

CRAZ’s mission is to monitor, analyze and provide information on air quality in the Calgary Region Airshed Zone.

As a multi-stakeholder advisory group, CRAZ’s objectives are to:

• develop and operate a comprehensive, reliable and trustworthy air quality monitoring program within the Airshed zone,
• analyze and manage air quality data and ensure the data is easily accessible,
• identify and prioritize air quality issues in the Airshed zone.
• develop strategies and action to achieve protection and continuous improvement of air quality in the Airshed zone.

        Website: www.craz.ca   email: information@craz.ca   Executive Director: Jill Bloor

   CRAZ continues to become more functional as the organization issues with the association become ironed out.  There have been some replacements of key personnel due to attrition as folks move away or change jobs.  In September, there will be a 3-5 year planning session for board members. 

At the June board meeting, two very interesting presentations were done on prescribed forest fire burns.  The presentations by Parks Canada (Ray Schmidt) and Sustainable Resource Development (Roy Campbell) focused on the urgent need to perform prescribed burns in order to maintain a healthy forest.  Q&A items were:

• Both Parks and SRD communicate their plans for prescribed burns; however, there was general agreement that more effective public consultation could be done and that perhaps CRAZ could help with that communication.
• Both Parks and SRD carry out smoke modeling prior to burning; however, the huge backlog of prescribed burns will result in some burning taking place at non-ideal times in August which is the worst time for smoke inversions (ideally spring is best time to ensure smoke rise up).  Everyone seemed to agree that prescribed burning was necessary; however, the requirement for prescribed burning needs to be balanced against the effect on air quality.
• A question was raised as to why industry uses one type of modeling software and Parks/SRD each use different software.
• As well, cumulative modeling, which would take into account the cumulative impact from industry and other sources, should be considered.
• CRAZ welcomed a partnership with both SRC and Parks Canada.

A very important discussion was initiated by the Chairman on the location of monitors to be operated by CRAZ.  CRAZ now operates a number of air monitoring stations in Calgary with the ultimate goal of operating monitors within the entire Airshed.  (Focus, a contractor, operates them on behalf of CRAZ)  There was general agreement that a good starting point would be to begin sharing the air quality data that industry currently reports to Alberta Environment.

The current reporting into AE is in hard copy format and not conducive to doing any sort of analysis or presentation.  Once data becomes more readily available and is posted on either CRAZ's www.craz.ca  or CASA's www.casahome.org websites, CRAZ members, through the technical committee, could then begin discussing (1) where monitoring stations should be located and (2) which monitors should be operated by CRAZ and which monitors should continue to be operated by Industry.  This is a hot topic and needs much more discussion -- after all, air quality monitoring and reporting is what CRAZ is all about.

 * * * * * * * * *

For more information on Air Quality Monitoring Zones in Alberta, visit the Clean Air Strategic Alliance website or Alberta Environment . www.environment.alberta.ca