Environmental open data and impact on Halton

[NikG]

I wanted to share the discussion happening around environment & health
impact of the Halton Hills generating station, some fires in Hamilton
and recently in Burlington.
Some of you may have seen the Milton Canadian Champion or InsideHalton
article: http://www.insidehalton.com/news/article/971229--gas-plant-plume-poses-no-threat
and some of the other recent articles where it's not very clear what
actual data was used to make an assessment that there was no danger/
impact/health risk.

From what I can tell there was no actual measured or even estimated
emissions data, supported by facts & numbers used in this assessment,
at least the Environment Canada folks doing the NPRI survey wouldn't
have it in their database because the data is a bit old (most recent
is 2009) and the Halton Hills station started operations in Sep 2010.

My point is not that of an environmental activist, but that of a
resident who wants to find out more about what's being put out into
the air by the industrial polluters around me (that's why we build
http://emitter.ca) -- but I'd like to get your thoughts, concerns,
ideas if this is something that you think about, or if there are
better (less politically & socially-charged areas) for Open Halton to
focus on.

Full blog post is here, should you care to read my full set of
arguments for open data being shared by energy companies (and other
businesses):

http://openhalton.ca/2011/04/blowing-smoke


Thanks!

[Julie Wallace]

Just a note on the air quality matter. The office in charge of this station would be the Central Regional Office of the Ministry of the Environment, 5775 Yonge St., 8th floor, North York ON M2M 4J1
Toll free: 1-800-810-8048.

The station as well as the Ministry should be monitoring constantly to ensure compliance. Hence, either or both should have data.

Julie

--
Julie Wallace, PhD

[NikG]

This is great info Julie! When you say the "station" do you mean there
is an air quality monitoring station nearby that is run by the
ministry -- or do you mean the HH generating station gathers data & is
being monitored by the MoE?
Do you know whether the mininstry has its own data, or do they rely on
the generating station to provide the data?

On Apr 5, 10:50 am, Julie Wallace <wallace.jul...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Just a note on the air quality matter. The office in charge of this station
> would be the Central Regional Office of the Ministry of the Environment,
> 5775 Yonge St., 8th floor, North York ON M2M 4J1
> Toll free: 1-800-810-8048.
>
> The station as well as the Ministry should be monitoring constantly to
> ensure compliance. Hence, either or both should have data.
>
> Julie
>
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, Apr 4, 2011 at 6:18 PM, NikG <nikgarku...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > I wanted to share the discussion happening around environment & health
> > impact of the Halton Hills generating station, some fires in Hamilton
> > and recently in Burlington.
> > Some of you may have seen the Milton Canadian Champion or InsideHalton
> > article:

> >http://www.insidehalton.com/news/article/971229--gas-plant-plume-pose...

> > and some of the other recent articles where it's not very clear what
> > actual data was used to make an assessment that there was no danger/
> > impact/health risk.
>
> > From what I can tell there was no actual measured or even estimated
> > emissions data, supported by facts & numbers used in this assessment,
> > at least the Environment Canada folks doing the NPRI survey wouldn't
> > have it in their database because the data is a bit old (most recent
> > is 2009) and the Halton Hills station started operations in Sep 2010.
>
> > My point is not that of an environmental activist, but that of a
> > resident who wants to find out more about what's being put out into
> > the air by the industrial polluters around me (that's why we build
> >http://emitter.ca) -- but I'd like to get your thoughts, concerns,
> > ideas if this is something that you think about, or if there are
> > better (less politically & socially-charged areas) for Open Halton to
> > focus on.
>
> > Full blog post is here, should you care to read my full set of
> > arguments for open data being shared by energy companies (and other
> > businesses):
>
> >http://openhalton.ca/2011/04/blowing-smoke
>
> > Thanks!
>
> --

> Julie Wallace, PhD- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Julie Wallace]

Nik, to the best of my knowledge, the HH station should do its own monitoring and that is submitted to the Ministry of the Env.  If there is a public complaint, as there has been in this case, the Ministry should go in and check it out themselves. If the Ministry was not previously monitoring, they should at least have the data from checking the complaint. I am not sure if the HH station is obliged to make their data public but the Ministry's data should be public. The best option is to contact the air quality analyst at the Central Regional office.Hope this helps.

--
Julie Wallace, PhD