METRO Vancouver unveiled its new air-sniffing truck last month, a $282,000 nose on wheels dubbed Mobile Air Monitoring Unit, or MAMU.
Using the chassis of a Ford F450, MAMU is the newest addition to Metro Vancouver's Fraser Valley air quality network, which includes 26 air-monitoring stations.
"Standard equipment that we have in all of our fixed monitoring stations is helpful in understanding the regional air quality, but it's really critical that we have air quality monitors that we can move around as well," said Ken Reid, superintendent of environmental sampling and monitoring for Metro Vancouver's air quality division.
MAMU uses inlets on its roof to test for pollutants including carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and diesel exhaust particles.
The air quality findings are available instantly, according to Reid.
"We get a lot of diagnostic data coming back to head office in real time," he said.
Some residents have expressed concern about air quality in the area surrounding the Richardson grain terminal and the Neptune coal terminal in North Vancouver, but MAMU may not be parked near the port anytime soon, according to Reid. "There are no plans for deployment of the new MAMU at this time," he said, adding that he was aware of the high demand for the van.
Complaints from local residents could be one of the factors in determining which areas MAMU tests, according to Reid. "I think we would bring lots of different information to the decision-making table, so complaints may be one area. If there was a period of time where the Mobile Air Monitoring Unit was not in high demand you might respond to a complaint more readily."
The vehicle generally requires one operator who drives MAMU to each location and sets up the monitoring equipment, including a meteorological tower that rises nine metres above the truck and measures wind direction, temperature, and relative humidity.
"It's very helpful, obviously, to have your meteorology because you can determine where the emissions may be coming from or how the pollutant is being dispersed."
Despite being mobile, the van generally stays in a single location for as long as three months in order to get an accurate baseline and measure incremental changes.
"If we're using it in an emergency situation, such as the Burn's Bog fire in 2005, you might move it to a location and you might only be there for a few days," Reid added.
The truck's cab and chassis cost $47,000 with an additional $132,000 spent on the truck's body. The remaining $103,000 was spent on air-quality instruments, according to Reid.
Metro Vancouver can also deploy other air-measuring equipment in the event there are concerns in an area that couldn't be accessed by MAMU.
"It could be somewhere in a park, it could be a fence line of an industry. So there's lots of options there that might be more accessible than with even the Mobile Air Monitoring Unit," said Reid.
Air monitoring units on the North Shore include a station near the foot of Riverside Drive south of Dollarton Highway, as well as a station at Mahon Park near West 16th Street.
