Between the landfill, the mill, and the old sewage dump, there are parts of Port Alberni where you need to plug your nose.
But how good is our overall air quality?
Researchers at Vancouver Island University (VIU) are trying to find out.
They’ve been using state-of-the-art technology to track greenhouse gasses at the Alberni Valley Landfill since 2020.
The information provided by VIU researchers will help the regional district pinpoint where the methane is coming from. It’ll also help them figure out how to tone it down.
Paulo Eichelberger is the solid waste manager with the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District. “It’s a fairly small landfill,” he told Alberni Valley News. He said this makes it an “ideal” place to measure how much our waste affects the air we breathe.
When we talk about climate change, we’re normally talking about carbon dioxide. But methane is also a huge factor. It has the second biggest impact on global warming.
Methane is traps more heat, but it doesn’t last as long as carbon dioxide. So reducing the amount of methane we belch into the air goes a long way toward combating climate change.
“Every kilogram of methane in the atmosphere is equivalent to 80 kilograms of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period,” Erik Krogh told Alberni Valley News. He’s a chemistry professor and the director of VIU’s Applied Environmental Research Laboratories.
“It also has a shorter lifetime in the atmosphere, so mitigating methane releases helps [impact] warming more quickly.”
The next phase of the project will get a better idea of the entire Valley’s air quality. “We want to get a sense of what the airshed looks like and what else contributes to the airshed, other than the landfill,” he added.
Could the poop lagoon be their next study spot?
There’s still another year of research before we get a full report of how much methane we’re making and breathing.
It’s easy to think of climate change as an issue that needs global change to make a real impact. But change starts at a local level.
Plus, when we make changes here at home, we get to see the results right away.
In this case, by reducing greenhouse gasses we help slow the extreme weather we’ll experience. We also end up with a cleaner smelling home.
That’s definitely a win-win scenario and a breath of fresh air for everyone.
