Vernon air quality ‘inaccurately dusty,’ city asking sensor be moved

Apr 29, 2026 | 2:06 PM

Vernon’s mayor has raised concerns about how air quality in the city is monitored.

The province’s air quality sensor is located at the Okanagan Science Centre, adjacent to Highway 6.

Due to its location, the Ministry of Environment and Parks’ sensor reads high dust levels that may not accurately reflect air quality conditions for the entire city.

A city staff report said the sensor had historically reported higher readings of particulate matter commonly linked to dust from construction and from vehicle traffic than other Interior municipalities, which could be attributed to the winter sand on snow plow routes and traffic pollution.

As a test, city staff installed its own air quality sensors an the Vernon Regional Airport and at the Boys and Girls Club, and found both areas had lower dust level recordings than the provincial sensor along the highway.

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“During the two-year recording period, the airport site recorded zero dust exceedances, while the Science Centre recorded 11 during the same period (July 2021 to July 2022),” the staff report said.

“The Recreation Centre site, located near a major highway and recreational areas, recorded three exceedances, compared to 17 at the Science Centre during the same time frame (Dec. 2022 to Dec. 2023). Although the data does not pinpoint specific sources of dust, it clearly indicates that air quality in Vernon is variable and not solely represented by the monitoring station located at the Science Centre location.”

At the meeting Monday, Mayor Victor Cumming said the difference in the findings were “shocking” and suggested the location where the air quality was measured should be changed.

He also stated no other Interior municipalities had their air quality sensors located along major corridors or highways.

“A good example would be Kelowna, [theirs] is out in the middle of a city park, way away from anything and, gee whiz, they have less air quality problems than we do,” the mayor stated at Monday’s meeting.

“The evidence shows that we would have far less air quality warnings if [the sensor] was at the Boys and Girls Club, just not even one full block off Highway 97, a really short block. I think that it’s apples and oranges, if we’re going to be comparing ourselves to other Okanagan-based communities we need to measure it in similar spots.”

Council received the report for information and then tasked Cumming with writing a letter to the province asking that city officials meet with the Ministry of Environment and Parks to discuss having the sensor moved to a new location to get a more accurate reading of the city’s air quality. That motion passed unanimously and the city will try to coordinate a meeting during the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention in September.

by Liam Verster

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