Industry in the Region

Protecting Air Quality
in the Heartland

Understanding and minimizing impacts on air quality is important to NCIA members, our workers and the residents of the communities where we operate.

Protection of air quality is determined using several important tools. In order to maintain good air quality, air contaminants are limited by regulating emissions with legislation (source emission standards) or by using license and renewal approvals as a management tool.  The installation of air pollution control equipment helps us avoid or minimizes the creation of pollutants.

Companies are required to participate with the Fort Air Partnership to conduct ambient air quality monitoring as a condition of their approvals. In partnership with the Fort Air Partnership, the number of monitoring stations, frequency and duration of monitoring, sampling techniques, and analytical methods, if necessary, depend upon the substance monitored. 

Given the size of our region and scope of our industry today, the air quality in our region is ‘good’ over 90 per cent of the time for all parameters, as per the Alberta Ambient Air Quality Objective (AAAQO). Good is the best possible rating. Our regional airshed has the capacity to handle regional growth, but we still need to manage for growth to ensure we maintain our good rating.

NCIA and industry companies along with our municipalities, Alberta Environment and Water and other regional organizations are currently developing an Air Management Framework for the Industrial Heartland and Capital Region, which will move the long-standing system of regulating individual facility emissions, to regulating on a regional basis.

Fort Air Parternship’s Making it Clear fact sheet series explains the air monitoring and reporting system, emission sources and provincial regulations in more detail:

• "How Is Air Quality Monitored?" fact sheet (5MB)
• "Emissions" fact sheet (1.43 MB)
• "Air Quality Dispersion Models" fact sheet ( 2.1 MB)
• "Environmental Cumulative Effects Management" fact sheet (2.1 MB)
• "Regulating Air Quality In Alberta" fact sheet (2.9 MB)

About Fort Air Partnership

The Fort Air Partnership (FAP), is a registered not-for-profit society whose mission is to operate a regional network and report credible and comprehensive ambient air quality information to the public, industry and government.  FAP operates the regional air monitoring network which includes eight continuous monitoring stations and 62 passive monitoring sites.  FAPs daily operations are managed by contracted staff and services including an Executive Director, Technical Director, Communications Director and an air quality monitoring contractor.   NCIA and its member companies provide the majority of funding with support from Alberta Environment and Alberta's Industrial Heartland Association.