New Air Quality Awareness Signage Installed in Abbotsford Park

New signage recently installed at a popular park in Abbotsford, BC is designed to raise awareness of air quality in the Fraser Valley among children and families. 

Patricia Ross (left), Vice-Chair of the Fraser Valley Regional District Board, views the new signage at Mill Lake Park with a local family.

Mill Lake Park, located in central Abbotsford, is a popular destination for Abbotsford residents. What visitors may not realize is that the park is also home to one of six air quality monitoring stations in the Fraser Valley Regional District (FVRD). These stations are part of a larger network of air quality monitoring stations located between Hope and Horseshoe Bay. Two large educational signs now decorating the station located near the Mill Lake playground aim to improve public understanding of air quality and its importance to health, safety, and the environment.

The Mill Lake Park air quality monitoring station monitors a variety of air pollutants, including fine particulate matter, ground-level ozone, and nitrogen oxides. It also helps to calculate the Air Quality Health Index, a tool designed to communicate health messaging on air quality.  

The Air Quality monitoring station is located in Mill Lake Park. 

The colourful signs on the sides of the station were designed with both children and adults in mind. The sign closest to the playground uses illustrations based on Mill Lake landmarks to demonstrate why air quality is important and how residents can help to reduce their negative impacts on air quality. The second sign on the parking lot side of the building provides more detailed and technical information about air quality in the region.

Both signs feature QR codes that link to the FVRD’s website with additional information on local air quality, including real-time information about the air quality being measured by stations in the Lower Mainland, including the one in Mill Lake Park.

Patricia Ross, Vice-Chair of the Board of the FVRD, says, “A central objective of the FVRD’s air quality program is to continuously improve air quality in the region. The new signs at Mill Lake Park help explain why air quality is such a critical issue within the region and what residents can do to help out.”

The FVRD works to improve air quality through research, monitoring, improvement initiatives, and public education. The FVRD recently released its Air Quality Management Plan which describes the health of the airshed and the many actions proposed to protect air quality within the region. 

To learn more about this initiative and what else the FVRD is doing to improve air quality in the region, visit fvrd.ca/airquality.