Partnership supports air quality monitoring in the St. Paul area and hands-on environmental education

ST. PAUL – LICA Environmental Stewards and University nuhelot’ine thaiyots’į nistameyimâkanak Blue Quills (UnBQ) are pleased to announce that LICA’s Portable Air Monitoring Station is now operating at the UnBQ campus, just outside St. Paul.

The station is collecting air quality and weather data for the St. Paul area. Its measurements provide St. Paul with a local Air Quality Health Index (AQHI) value, a simple, health-based scale that residents can check on LICA’s website.

On campus, the station also serves as a hands-on learning resource for students enrolled in UnBQ’s Community-Based Environmental Monitoring Training Program (CEMT).

The station moves roughly every two years among Bonnyville, Lac La Biche and St. Paul, providing detailed local monitoring that complements the year-round data collected by LICA’s permanent stations.

“The portable station gives us the flexibility to bring comprehensive monitoring directly into the communities we serve,” said Kristina Morris, Executive Director of LICA. “Its placement at Blue Quills strengthens our understanding of air quality in the St. Paul area while also supporting practical environmental education.”

The UnBQ campus is a natural fit. LICA has taught air monitoring in the CEMT program since it began in 2022. Students have toured LICA’s monitoring sites, charted and interpreted its data, learned how readings are checked and verified before they are reported and studied how air monitoring is regulated in Alberta.

The portable station now puts that work on their doorstep.

“Having the station on our campus strengthens the connection between education, community and the land,” said Dr. Sherri Chisan, President of UnBQ. “Students can learn directly from environmental conditions in the place where they are studying, while the information collected contributes to a broader understanding of air quality in the St. Paul area.”

Practical, field-based learning is central to the CEMT program, which prepares students for environmental monitoring work in their communities and beyond.

“The station turns the campus into a working air monitoring classroom,” said Ann Frierson, CEMT Program Coordinator. “Students can see how the instruments operate, work with data collected here on campus and follow the process from data collection and quality assurance through to interpretation and communication.”

LICA thanks Portage College in Lac La Biche for hosting the station during its previous deployment and supporting regional environmental monitoring. A report summarizing the station’s monitoring results from Lac La Biche will be published on LICA’s website in early 2027.

Students, community members and anyone else interested can follow the station’s data through LICA’s online Data Access Portal. Readings are posted hourly and remain preliminary until LICA has completed its quality assurance and data validation processes.