Air Quality

Air is a precious resource that many of us take for granted. Air supplies us with oxygen, which is essential for our bodies to live. Adults take about 20,000 breaths per day. Children breathe almost twice that amount because they are smaller and their respiratory systems are still maturing. Check your local air quality by clicking on the Air Quality Map

Clean air is important for health. Learn more about what you can do to protect the air in our region:

• Wood-Burning Appliance Exchange Initiative – CVRD provides financial assistance to replace old, smoky wood-burning appliances with healthier, more efficient heating options
  
• Backyard Burning & Alternatives Information – Learn how to minimize local pollution from backyard burning

The Air Quality Problem

In the Cowichan, the air contaminant of greatest concern is PM2.5, which refers to particulate matter that is less than 2.5 microns in diameter. This contaminant can travel deep into the lungs and become lodged there, causing heart and lung disease, and premature death.

Air quality data for the Cowichan region indicate that there are occasional exceedances of the provincial PM2.5 objectives from 2009 to 2015. Exceedances were primarily due to local open burning and wood burning appliances (winter), and forest fires located in other regions (summer). It has been estimated that 77% of the total PM2.5 in the Region is coming from area sources. Open burning accounted for 53% of the total PM2.5 and wood burning appliances accounted for 23% of the total PM2.5.

Why are we so concerned about air quality?

There is solid scientific evidence at a national level of a strong link between air pollution levels and impacts on human health. Locally, data from Island Health indicates that in the Cowichan Local Health Area, admissions rates for children with respiratory diseases averaged 70% higher than provincial rates for the period 1998 to 2012.

Airshed Protection Strategy

What are we doing about it?

Working together for clean air to support our health, our environment and our communities. The Cowichan Regional Airshed Roundtable is a collective of Government agencies, First Nations, industry, and non-government organizations collaborated to identify air quality issues, identify specific goals, actions and key organizations to do the work that can improve regional air quality.

Cowichan’s Regional Airshed Protection Strategy this report outlines an updated Regional Airshed Strategy for the Cowichan Valley Regional District (CVRD). It identifies the necessary actions to be undertaken to develop an effective response to our local areas concerns.

Partnerships