Overview
Clearing the Air: Alberta’s Renewed Clean Air Strategy was released in 2012, and outlines strategic directions to enhance Alberta’s Air Quality Management System.
An action plan was also developed in conjunction with the Strategy. This action plan outlines short, medium and long-term actions.
To view both of these documents, please visit the Open Government Portal at:
Alberta has also developed province-wide management frameworks for acid deposition and electricity emissions management.
Industrial Management
Management of emissions from industrial facilities is an important aspect of air quality management in Alberta.
Ambient Air Monitoring
Ambient air monitoring in Alberta serves a number of purposes including:
- Assessing impact of releases on the environment
- Ensuring pollution control technologies are operating effectively
- Providing data for tracking trends in environmental performance and effects
There are two main forms of ambient air monitoring in Alberta:
- Community monitoring uses strategically located permanent monitoring stations to measure the level of air pollution where people live and to track trends over time
- Perimeter (or fenceline) monitoring involves discrete sampling of substances at various locations along an industrial facility's property boundary to measure the level of pollution leaving a facility
The Environmental Monitoring and Science Division (EMSD), airsheds, Environment and Climate Change Canada, and industry operate a comprehensive network of about 110 air quality monitoring stations across Alberta that measure the ambient air quality.
Air quality data collected from ambient air quality monitoring stations are available electronically from Alberta’s ambient air quality data warehouse.