Local Air Quality
In 2016, a new air quality monitoring station was added by Metro Vancouver into the busy commercial and residential Sapperton neighbourhood to provide better representative measurements of the levels of air contaminants occurring in New Westminster. The addition of this new station follows an extensive air quality monitoring study conducted by Metro Vancouver during 2009-2010 to gain a better understanding of the air contaminant dispersion and impact of vehicle emissions on local air quality.
The pollutants monitored at the station include ground-level ozone, nitrogen oxides and fine particulate matter (PM2.5), which can be used to calculate an Air Quality Health Index (AQHI). The near real-time data collected at the New Westminster air quality monitoring station is available online at AirMap.ca.