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October
1999 Newsletter
Health
Canada Criticizes Air Quality Study
Health
Canada has joined the chorus of criticism of the Region's
air quality studies carried out last year by RWDI
(Rowan Williams Irwin & Davies). These studies were
analysed and strongly condemned last fall by Tom Muir,
Dr. David Pengelly and Dr. Brian McCarry. Their criticisms
were reported in the Spectator in December
1998, but the promised response from the Region has
never materialised.
The
Health Canada critique is dated June 1999 and has
been made available on the Public Registry of the
federal environmental assessment. It states in part:
"By and large, the report by RWDI on air quality appears
to be an attempt to look at a very complex issue with
a simple framework. As a result, many assumptions
are made of a questionable nature and supporting data
is drawn from inappropriate sources. Specific comments
addressing many of these inadequacies are delineated
in the comments of others already presented including
such things as vehicle traffic density and composition,
baseline air quality, comparison of predictions for
the Expressway to measurements for Highway 404 to
show the conservativeness of the modelling, and some
other issues discussed in detail by Tom Muir. All
of these assumptions reduce the confidence in the
resulting data and the subsequent analysis of health
impacts conducted by Cantox."
The
Health Canada expert further notes that "some of the
assumptions used by RWDI are inappropriate and would
lead to an underestimation of the emissions expected
from the Expressway. I think the chief one relates to
the assumption about speed on the Expressway, wherein
the traffic is assumed to move at the speed limit without
congestion. Congestion will occur and the speed limit
will be exceeded, both of which will lead to increases
in the emissions for the roadway. This will result in
an underestimation of the health effects for the Expressway."
The study goes on to criticise "the absence of an analysis
of the relative benefits of providing alternate forms
of transportation, i.e. expansion of mass transit vs.
the building of a roadway." The expert notes that it
is well-known that building new roads "encourages the
use of personal vehicles for discretionary and non-discretionary
trips and in the end will increase vehicle usage and
thus the regional emissions profile".
The
study also argues that the effects of the expressway
on climate change should be evaluated. "Many of the
steps required to address climate change will necessitate
local actions and in order to properly examine the impact
of this project, this issue needs to be addressed. Both
the provision of new roadways AND the removal of a significant
green space and tens of thousands of trees have impacts
that need to be viewed from a climate change perspective."
The
RWDI study suggested various ways of reducing expressway
air pollution, such as frequent street cleaning. The
Health Canada report declares that these mitigation
strategies "are at best of limited benefit, and in the
manner presented give a false impression that they would
reduce the impacts of the expressway", and goes on to
note that they "will have minimal impact on particulates
of relevance to human health".
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Friends of Red Hill Valley 1991-2005
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