AMBIENT AIR QUALITY

The ambient air quality monitoring (AAQM) network near our industrial sector consists of two comprehensive stations. One station is located at Wallace Terrace and the other at Patrick St. They measure various parameters such as particles under 10 microns (PM10), Total Reduced Sulfur (TRS), VOCs (ex, benzene), PAHs (Benzo-a-pyrene) and metals.  Distributed within residential neighbourhoods, there are five dustfall stations ("dustfall jars") and there is one meteorological station located on Goulais Ave at ASI' Gate 4 entrance that measure wind speed, wind direction as well as the temperature and humidity.

There are currently no monitoring devices located to east of ASI (Jamestown/Cathcart), south towards the United States or in southeasterly directions towards Whitefish Island and our boardwalk.  There is no longer a monitor that measures finer particle (PM 2.5) since it was removed from the Patrick St. station by the ministry in 2003.  The placement and type of the monitoring devices in the network is the responsibility of the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP).

Comprehensive stations have accurate monitors that actively draw in air to be sampled.  The rate and type of sampling can be continuous or non-continuous depending on the contaminant being measured and varies at each monitoring station.  In continuous sampling the contaminant is being measured at shorter regular intervals such a every minute or every hour.  In non-continuous sampling, the contaminant (parameter) is measured at longer intervals such as every 6th day or 12th day and requires laboratory analysis to determine the levels.

Dustfall stations are specialized containers commonly installed on utility poles that passively collect particulate that falls by gravity into them.  They have limited accuracy but are useful for identifying specific particulates in the air. Their contents are sampled and analyzed every 30 days.

The AAQM network is operated and maintained by Algoma Steel Inc. (ASI).  The data obtained from the network is under the discretion of ASI and public viewing of current air quality data is limited to a single hour when accessing their website. The data listed provides the average hourly reading of parameters such as PM 10 and TRS.  This network does not provide an Air Quality Health Index (AQHI) reading since there is no PM 2.5 monitor and parameters such as ozone and nitrogen dioxide are not measured.

There has long been concern form residents about the air quality in the industrial sector near Algoma Steel.  Due to the greater impact of fine particulate matter under 2.5 micrograms (PM 2.5) to human health, a PM 2.5 monitor was installed close to the industrial sector at Patrick St. to monitor these emissions.  This location proved to indicate that levels close to the steel plant were high, but the ministry felt it did not represent the overall air quality of Sault, so it was moved in 2003 to a new location at Sault College.  This location was over twice the distance and at a higher elevation from the original location.  Although the ministry felt this location more accurately represented the overall air quality in the Sault, it would not provide useful information to residents living closer to the steel plant and industrial sector who would be exposed to higher levels.

"On April 7, 2004 a reporter from the Sault Star noticed a haze in the west end of the City and called the local Ministry of Environment (MOE).  The Ministry told him that the Air Quality Reading (AQI) for that time of the day was 99.  This number nearly exceeded the 50-99 range on the AQI scale indicating "poor" air quality (Sault Star, April 8 ,2004)."

A second "poor" air quality reading of 150 was recorded on July 28, 2004 which was dismissed by MOE officials as "just raw data" (Sault Star, July 29, 2004) while a third on October 12, 2004 measured in at 92 (Sault Star, October 13, 2004)."

-  (Breathing Easy: A Report on the Potential for Community Cooperation in Air Quality Issues in the Bayview Area of Sault Ste. Marie, December 05, 2005)  

The monitor that once existed on Bonney St. in the Bayview neighbourhood that measured PM 10 was relocated further away to Wallace Terrace in 2006.  Since emissions disperse as they move further away from the source, levels in the Bayview neighbourhood would be expected to be higher than the readings at Wallace Terrace. 

Emissions from a coke oven battery stack ("chimney") are a significant source of contaminants especially particulate matter (PM).  On each stack there is a continuous opacity monitor (COM or "Stack" monitors) that record the opacity by measuring how much light can pass through the emission ("smoke").  An opacity of 100% means no light can pass through the emission, meaning there is a very high level of contaminants in the emission.  The colour of the emission does not matter when determining opacity, and various colours including black, yellow, orange, brown and white can all block light causing a violation to be recorded. A violation of opacity occurs when the opacity is greater than 20% for six consecutive minutes. There were over 18,000 violations in 2019 and over 12,000 by the beginning of October 2020 from Algoma Steel's three coke oven battery stacks.

Despite many violations, Algoma Steel has not faced any fines for air emissions in 2019 and 2020 including over 100 operational upsets and coke oven battery emissions.  Pollution should not be free.