A single smog alert for Southwestern Ontario, the only one in the entire province so far this year, that lasted a mere two hours.

A single smog alert for Southwestern Ontario, the only one in the entire province so far this year, that lasted a mere two hours.

No London-Middlesex smog advisories since 2012.

Distroscale

Five years after the last of Ontario’s five coal-fired electricity plants closed, Southwestern Ontarians are breathing easier — a reality observers say is the result of the Ontario government’s move to close the plants and more focus on emissions south of the border.

Smog advisories, for years common in the summer in Southwestern Ontario, have all but vanished in the region. Except for a two-hour alert in Huron-Perth on Aug. 12, the only smog and air health advisory for all of Ontario so far this year, the area has seen nothing in 2019 like the bad old, bad air days of the past.

Provincewide, Ontario had one smog and air health advisory in 2018, none in 2017 and one in 2016.

The last smog advisory in London-Middlesex was in 2012, a year when the area had seven alerts spanning 18 days.

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In 2005, London-Middlesex had 12 advisories spanning 45 days, the worst year for smog in the area since 2003, the earliest year Air Quality Ontario data is available.

The transformation is mainly the result of the provincial government’s move to close its five coal-fired electricity plants, one observer says. The original pledge was made by former Progressive Conservative premier Ernie Eves in 2003 and carried on by the succeeding Liberal government,

“It’s one of the very biggest drivers, for sure,” said Jack Gibbons, chair of the Ontario Clean Air Alliance.

“Back in 2002, we had 60 smog alert days. The coal plants were mostly phased out by 2010, or their production was reduced, and by 2014 they were all shut down. That’s led to a dramatic reduction in the number of our smog alert days.”

Of Ontario’s five now-shuttered coal plants, two were in Southwestern Ontario: Nanticoke in Haldimand County and Lambton near Sarnia. At their peak, when all were operating, the province’s coal plants accounted for one-quarter of the province’s electricity supply.

“London was just downwind from the Lambton coal-fired plant in Sarnia, which when it was operating was the No. 2 smog polluter in all of Ontario,” Gibbons said.

“The five coal plants, back when they were operating around 2002, produced as much air pollution as seven million cars.”

Nanticoke, the largest coal-fired plant in North America, which was recently demolished, was a notorious polluter. The plant was singlehandedly responsible for six per cent of Canada’s air pollution, emitting more than four provinces, Environment Canada data from 2000 said.

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Smog from Ontario’s coal plants triggered asthma attacks, forced parents to keep their children from playing outside and cast a visible haze over parts of the province, Gibbons said.

Smog alerts — at least at the volume and frequency Ontario was seeing in the early 2000s — are most likely a thing of the past in the province, Gibbons said.

“The five coal plants were by far our largest source of air pollution,” he said. “I don’t think we’ll ever go back to that. I think over time we’ll get stronger and stronger regulations to reduce emissions from all sources. I don’t think we’ll ever return to how it was back in 2002 when we had 60 smog alerts in one summer.”

While it’s easy to attribute the dearth of smog days in Ontario solely on the closing if its coal plants, it ignores the big picture of factors affecting air quality in the province, Environment Minister Jeff Yurek says.

“I think they’ve played a huge part in it, but the way the air flows in Ontario, anywhere from 30 to 80 per cent of the particles in our air can come from the States,” Yurek said.

“It’s also about the collaboration we’ve had with our American partners across the water to try to clean up the air down there as well.”

While closing Ontario’s coal plants had an impact, it isn’t one single action — or even one single party — that improved the province’s air quality, said Kenneth Green, chair of energy and environmental studies at the Fraser Institute, a right-leaning think tank.

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“The really big story is a lot of what cleaned up Ontario’s air was America controlling its coal emissions,” Green said.

The U.S. Clean Air Act of 1963 set the wheels in motion for comprehensive changes in the manufacturing and industrial sector in the ensuing decades, Green said. Tighter restrictions on vehicle emissions north and south of the border have also played a significant role, he said.

“I grew up in Los Angeles in the 1970s and the smog in the San Fernando valley was so thick you literally could not read a street sign from halfway down the block some days,” Green said.

“The pollution has been brought under control to the point that children today are rarely going to be exposed to a smog alert.”

Smog and Air Health Advisories

Then (2005)

London-Middlesex: 12 advisories, 45 days

Ontario: 15 advisories total, 53 days

Now (As of Sept. 19, 2019)

London-Middlesex: 0

Ontario: 1 alert, two hours