Natural Resources Conservation Board representatives provided High River council, and the public, with an update on their air monitoring efforts at their regular meeting Monday.
They explained how the two air monitoring stations at the Spray Park work and what they've found.
They say data was collected from May 12 to June 27. Sulphur is only one part of the cause of odours coming from Rimrock Feeders. There's also ammonia.
They say the levels have not exceeded government guidelines and they've determined there are no direct physical health impacts although they acknowledge that having to deal with the odour can cause stress which can translate into physical issues.
They've also determined the wind strength and direction have a great deal to do with the odour and it tends to come predominantly from the southwest and west at the same time as many of the complaints are called in by area residents.
Representatives of the NRCB at Monday's council meetingBenita Estes, who's lead opposition to a proposed biodigester says it still leaves questions.
"I think it's just this whole, they need to get more scientific data apparently in order to back up the complaints, they can't go in and shut down the feedlot , sometimes I wonder if they're just banking on the fact that the biodigester is going to solve this whole problem when we know it's not," Estes says. "I'm indifferent to this meeting, I just wanted to hear them say a few things, the fact that they said thepossibility of the pens being cleaned too often, well that offsets the biodigester because they were proud that they were going to be cleaning pens daily."
She says as soon as the manure is moved any distance an odour is created.
Representatives of the NRCB say they've been keeping tabs on Rimrock, looking at manure management and putting hay bales on the edge of the lagoon to prevent the wind from setting the smells adrift into the town and surrounding area.
They say if the bales work, they'll look at a wind fence.
They're also looking at deploying another Scentroid CTair unit and some passive air monitors around town and right at the Rimrock Feeders site.
Thu, Jul 25, 3:30 PM
Casual, Contract, Full-time, Hourly, Part-time, Permanent, Salary, Administrative, Agriculture, Communications/Media, Education, Entry-Level, Finance, Healthcare, Hospitality, Human Resources, Labour, Manufacturing, Professionals, Retail, Sales, Technology
