Province to address concerns, monitor air quality at various St. Boniface locations

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This article was published 17/07/2018 (2108 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Amid growing concern from residents of South St. Boniface’s Dufresne neighbourhood regarding heavy-metal contaminants found in local soil samples, the provincial government is planning to roll out a new mobile air-monitoring system in the area by the end of August.

The neighbourhood, a cluster of residences located south of Archibald Street and north of Marion Street, is abutted by various industrial facilities that residents have repeatedly complained cause air-quality issues and noise pollution.

In 2017, some residents met with provincial ministers to relay concerns, after which the province committed to funding a comprehensive analysis of neighbourhood soil. Results from that study were released last week, showing unsafe levels of metals — including lead — on at least 24 of 150 tested properties.

Manitoba Sustainable Development Minister Rochelle Squires said she was unable to publicly announce the findings because of a legislated blackout on communications during the St. Boniface byelection campaign. But on Wednesday, after the election had closed, Squires said she was committed to addressing the urgent issues of air and soil quality.

“We are going to continue to monitor the soil in St. Boniface. We know this is an ongoing issue,” she told reporters at the legislature, adding residents’ health is “of paramount consideration.”

Dr. Lisa Richards, a Winnipeg Regional Health Authority medical officer of health, said the results from the soil sample study would have relatively low impacts on human health, but she suggested residents thoroughly wash and peel produce, wash their hands, add new soil to existing plots and use raised garden beds.

Don Labossiere, the province’s director of environmental compliance and enforcement, said the air-monitoring system, which cost the government about $60,000, analyzes fine particulate matter and ozone, which he said were the areas of highest concern regarding air quality.

The province doesn’t have sufficient data to determine the exact origin of the lead in the samples, although Dr. Francis Zvomuya, the University of Manitoba soil scientist who headed the study, suggested it might emanate from industrial emissions, old leaded paint and deposits of leaded gasoline.

“It’s going to take some time, and putting units in different places, in order to fully delineate what the issue is and help pinpoint specific sources,” Labossiere said. “It’s almost certain there’s more than one source in particular.”

The province plans to consult with residents as well as the U of M regarding placement of the monitoring unit, Squires said. Labossiere hopes to release the data the unit collects in real-time online, just as the province’s stationary units do.

Gary Tessier, a Dufresne resident whose soil had 222 milligrams of lead per kilogram of soil — nearly two times the acceptable national level — was pleased to hear of the new system. He believes the air quality is a city-wide issue; changing wind patterns can carry possible pollutants far from the Mission Industrial Park, he told the Free Press.

A spokeswoman for the South St. Boniface Residents Association said the new station is “better than no action,” adding since the association met with Squires in the winter, the minister has yet to communicate with them directly.

“The air-monitoring station is Step 1,” Labossiere said. “We want to make sure we’re capable of keeping track of air quality concerns within all of Manitoba, as well.

“Lead in soil is not a new phenomenon, nor is it a St. Boniface phenomenon. It’s basically a function of the industrialized world.”

ben.waldman@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @benjwaldman