Environment Canada to tighten clean air guidelines for ozone, soot

Environment Canada announced that it plans to increase its national ambient air quality standards for ground-level ozone and fine particulate matter in 2015 and 2020, as well as add a new long-term exposure limit.
“We are implementing a new system to improve outdoor air quality for all Canadians, in collaboration with the provinces and territories,” Environment Minister Peter Kent said in a statement. “These new air quality standards are proof of our commitment to environmental protection, today and for generations to come.”
The standards, which are voluntary, were developed by Environment Canada in coordination with Health Canada, the provinces, territories, and several stakeholder groups under the new Air Quality Management System.
The changes include first-ever national annual fine particulate matter standards, which were set at 10 micrograms per cubic meter and are to take effect in 2015. That standard will tighten further in 2020 to 8.8 micrograms per cubic meter.
Short-term fine particulate matter limits, for periods of 24 hours, are set to be tightened to 28 micrograms per cubic meter in 2015, and then to 27 micrograms per cubic meter in 2020, down from the current standard of 30 micrograms per cubic meter. The 8-hour ozone standard, currently at 65 parts per billion (ppb), is to be tightened to 63 ppb in 2015, and then to 62 ppb in 2020.
The “health-based” standards were set by the federal government under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999.
Ground-level ozone, a component of smog, and fine particulate matter, or soot, stem from nitrogen oxide emissions and other pollutants that are released largely by coal-fired power plants and cars and trucks. “The quality of the air we breathe can have a direct impact on our health,” said Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq in a statement. “These new air quality standards are an important part of Health Canada’s mandate to protect the health of Canadians.”
While it is not clear how the provinces will implement the voluntary guidelines or how the nation’s approximately two dozen coal-fired plants will be affected, Sierra Club Canada’s executive director John Bennett said he expects “absolutely nothing” to change. At issue, he said, is a lack of proper enforcement mechanisms and incentives and a federal environmental agency that he said has been deprived of necessary resources under the Harper administration.
As a point of comparison, the U.S. EPA is revising its primary annual standard for fine particulate matter to 12 micrograms per cubic meter, averaged over three years. The EPA left unchanged the daily primary standard for fine particles, which is at 35 micrograms per cubic meter, or the 98th percentile, averaged over three years. The EPA is widely expected to strengthen the current 8-hour primary ozone standard of 75 parts per billion to a level in a range of from 60 ppb to 70 ppb.
Those differences in the standards, Environment Canada said, stem from the fact that the U.S. population is about 10 times larger than Canada’s and that the U.S. has a different regulatory and governmental framework. And while the standards are voluntary in Canada, the U.S. federal government can impose penalties on states for failure to comply.
(May 29, 2013)