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MERRITT HERALD FREE
TUESDAY, JUNE 4, 2013 • MERRITT NEWSPAPERS
EATIN’ DIRT Record crowds came out for the 1st Annual Ty Pozzobon Invitational Bull Riding at the Merritt Rodeo Grounds on Saturday. The cowboys, the bulls and the bull fighters didn’t disappoint. Winner of the event was 20-year-old Chase Outlaw from Hamburg, Ark. with a pair of 92-point rides. Look for complete results and more photos in this Thursday’s edition of the Merritt Herald. Ian Webster/Herald
City eyes air quality standards bylaw By Emily Wessel THE HERALD
newsroom@merrittherald.com
Merritt City Council is moving ahead on establishing a city-wide air quality standard bylaw for new or modified commercial and industrial buildings. The motion was brought forward by Coun. Dave Baker and revisited at the City of Merritt regular council meeting on May 28. Baker, who has served on Merritt’s Air Quality Committee for five years, said it’s time to standardize emissions regulations.
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‘Merritt’s air quality is not the best, and I think we need to save whatever we have.’ — CITY COUNCILLOR DAVE BAKER
“We’ve done a lot of good initatives — the wood stove program is one that comes to mind — but I think we need to go further,” Baker said. “There’s not a lot we can do with
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the businesses that are here now, but what we can do is try and mitigate any further air quality problems that we have in Merritt through new businesses or industry that come in. Merritt’s air quality is not the best, and I think we need to save whatever we have.” Baker said the city has access to a high, readymade standard from Western BioEnergy’s Merritt Green Energy Project, which uses wood waste from mills — renewable products that would otherwise go to waste — to produce electricity. Baker
said the Green Energy Project goes beyond provincial standards on emissions. “What I’m afraid of is, down the road, we’re going to get somebody who wants to come in and put in a plant of some sort that may have different emissions,” Baker told council. “If these people have a certain standard and the Green Energy Project has a certain standard, there’s no fairness in that. Since the Green Energy Project standard is pretty darn good, that’s the standard I’d like to see — or better.” Though Baker’s motion
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fairly broad so staff can report on the impact of the bylaw on residential and industrial buildings. “I’m not expecting a homeowner to put in some kind of a smokestack,” Baker said. “My major concern is industry, but the more information we have, the better.” “This is something that’s been on the table for a while, an air standard of some sort in Merritt. We’ve now got a very good standard that has been set up for us, and I think we need to take that and build on it,” Baker said. “This is just a starting point.”
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applied to commercial or industrial sites and not residences, Coun. Harry Kroeker suggested that city staff also report on the financial implications of an emissions bylaw for homeowners in the building process. “I have some concern about what it will do to the cost of any new or modified facility,” Kroeker said. “I’m not in favour of just carte blanche going ahead and setting a bylaw if it’s going to increase the cost to the citizens.” Coun. Alastair Murdoch suggested council leave their directions to city staff
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