ID: 1958
Presenting Author: Danlin Su
Session: 725 - After the Assessment – Where’s the Value and What Happened in the End?
Status: pending
Fort McKay Métis Nation’s community-led odour monitoring program addresses an information gap and provides the data necessary for conducting meaningful odour IAs and managing odour issues.
Oil sands mining and bitumen production in Northeastern Alberta are a large source of a number of air pollutants. Some of these pollutants are very odorous. Since the 1960s, when commercial-scale bitumen production and processing started, the community of Fort McKay Métis Nation has been experiencing significant odour issues. For decades, Impact Assessment (IA) processes and regulatory requirements were unable to address this impact issue. Key gaps included: the complex nature of odorants, the cumulative effect of multiple odorant sources, a lack of defined metrics and methods for odour assessment, and air quality guidelines and environmental regulations that did not adequately address odour outcomes.
This presentation examines the community’s decades-long journey of advocacy and actions to address these gaps. It details how systemic gaps in IA theory and regulatory governance were challenged, which included: developing its own guidelines for impact assessments, characterizing air quality in the community during odour events, including odours in a community-based air quality index, and actively working for, and on, better provincial odour quality criteria. Recently, Fort McKay Métis Nation implemented a community-led, sensory-based odour monitoring program. This initiative provides critical community experience of odour data to support air emissions reduction efforts. It fosters capacity development within the community and provides the critical information necessary for the assessment of the effectiveness of odour management actions.
Danlin is an environmental engineer and consultant. She supports Indigenous communities in Alberta on air quality issues related to oil sands development.
Coauthor 1: Denise Golden
Coauthor 2: Foluke Aina
Coauthor 3: Brandon Paquette
Coauthor 4: Bridget Faichney
Coauthor 5: David Spink