Air quality quandary

By Kate Bouey -CASTANET Jun 28, 2016 / 5:00 am

Coldstream's efforts to start a region-wide air quality service have gone up in smoke. The City of Vernon is the last community within the North Okanagan Regional District not to support the proposed new function. Instead, city council voted Monday on a weakened motion to support collaborating with neighbouring jurisdictions to address air quality in the region. Enderby, Armstrong, Lumby and the electoral areas had already said no. Mayor Akbal Mund questioned how an air quality function would have worked when there are different burning regulations in different areas. “Vernon's are much more strict,” Mund said. “How do you allow burning in all of those jurisdictions when Vernon doesn't allow the burning? “Smoke doesn't have the same jurisdiction.” Coldstream Mayor Jim Garlick has already expressed disappointment with the decisions of other councils. “It's unfortunate,” Garlick said recently. “That's one of the things the Ministry of Environment said would be a good thing to work together on when the (Pinnacle) pellet plant came into the area, to deal with it on a regional basis.” Coldstream had proposed that NORD members support and help pay for an air quality function to monitor pollution levels in the area.