RDOS IS DOING GOOD THINGS ON THE AIR-QUALITY ISSUE

OSOYOOS TIMES-November 28, 2007

We have been critical of the Regional District Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS) over some issues in the past.

So it's only fair and proper that when our regional government does good things, we should certainly recognize that, too.

In fact, RDOS does many things well. Its board and staff have a vast area of south-central B.C. to look after, with a myriad of challenging issues and many competing interests to juggle.

One of the tough issues RDOS has taken on is the tricky question of air quality.

With people across Canada increasingly beset by air-borne allergies, asthma, bronchitis, emphysema, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and other lung ailments, air quality is a big concern for everyone.

This is especially so in an agricultural area such as the South Okanagan, full of orchards where the burning of pruned materials once or twice a year can send huge amounts of smoke into the air all around us.

It's a measure of the constant concern over this burning that Osoyoos Town Councillor Ted Cronmiller spoke out at a recent Council meeting to question whether enough is being done to curb the harmful effects of the smoke rising from orchards.

In fact, RDOS has been tackling this issue for a few years now. Staff member Janice Johnson has been actively working with orchardists and others to keep the smoke down. Allowable 'burning days' are limited, and aren't allowed at all on days with air inversions that would push the smoke down onto area residents.
Wood chipping, as an alternative to burning is being promoted.

And a new program keeps agricultural plastics out of the burning piles.

Cronmiller remarked after attending a recent RDOS Air Quality Committee meeting that he's impressed with all that's being done.

Hats off to RDOS for keeping on top of this issue for the safety and better health of all of us.

* * * After our Nov. 7 editorial criticizing the local RCMP detachment for not providing adequate information about its enforcement activities in town, we were visited by Osoyoos Corporal Dan Moskaluk and we had a very positive, productive meeting on the issue.

Both the RCMP and we at the Times are committed to meeting weekly to take note of enforcement activities of interest to the Osoyoos public. We appreciate Cpl. Moskaluk's approach.

On a related note, last week we published Osoyoos Detachment Commander Kurt Lozinski's reply to our editorial.

We must correct a couple of misapprehensions in Staff Sgt. Lozinski's letter. He wrote that because of enforcement duties, officers are not always available for media briefings. That can certainly happen occasionally, and is understandable.

But he goes on to say the media sessions are two- to three-hour meetings about low-risk crimes, with the officer having coffee with the media providing them with enough fluff to fill the pages of their papers.

That's not the case at all. We have never met for three hours, and likely never for two hours. And there's no coffee. We are there for a quick, 45-minute or, at most, one-hour meeting to note the details of the crime enforcement in Osoyoos that our readers have every right to know about. It's not fluff, and it's not for the sake of filling our pages.

We're disappointed that anyone would view this important activity that way.