During my daily drive into the Bowl recently, I was awaken to the fact that the fog didn't smell.
After 40-plus years of associating fog, inversions, and the fall season with the smell of the pulp mills and industry, I was grateful that this year my nose hardly had a whiff of "the smell of money," which really translates that clean air is the odorless smell of success for the residents of Prince George.
If it wasn't for the hard work of people like Mary Macdonald, Jo Graber, Sergio Petrucci, Kathleen Haines and Geraldine Burbee.. to name only a few, the support of the medical establishment especially Dr. Marie Hay, Dr. David Bowering, Dr. William Osei, and Dr. Laurie Cook , politicians like Shirley Bond, Pat Bell, Dan Rogers, Brian Skakun, and Dick Harris who worked to bring stiffer regulations, increased pressure, and tax money in the form of Green Energy Funds to town to help clean up the mills, these changes wouldn't have happened.
It took courage on the part of the local office of the Ministry of Environment who were caught in the crosshairs of public pressure and Industry to stand up and enforce tougher standards.
It took the media in Prince George to help make heard the voices demanding better air and less pollution.
It took a willingness to change and improve on the part of industry. Leaders like Martin Pudlas, Glenda Waddell and the board from Canfor Pulp, as well as Greg Calpas from Husky and Martin Meyer of Carrier lumber, who took up the challenge and worked hard to make change happen within their companies for the betterment of the people of Prince George.
Companies such as Pacific Bioenergy, Marsulex, Pittman Ashphalt and Columbia Bitulitic also deserve note for the significant upgrades they have made over the last five years that has also contributed to the cleaner air. That's not to say that there is not room for increased improvement, please keep bringing on upgrades to reduce emissions.
Finally, if it wasn't for the multitude of citizens of Prince George who stood up and demanded change by going to meetings, writing letters, and voicing their concerns, we would still be breathing deeply in the smell of sulfur and other pollutants.
We truly have a city we can be proud of, and a people that should be proud of themselves.
Dave Fuller
Prince George
