Operation of Saturna Island CAPMoN Environmental Monitoring Station

Environment Canada (EC) operates an environmental monitoring station in the Gulf Islands at Saturna Island, BC. The primary focus of this station is research and monitoring. There is daily collection of precipitation samples, air composition and particulate matter, as well as tropospheric and stratospheric ozone monitoring. Samples are collected primarily through the use of automated samplers. A contractor is required to attend to the station on a daily basis starting between 0800 and 0900 hours PST, seven days per week to attend to various duties. The majority of these duties involve the retrieval, weighing, sealing, annotating and storage of the samples according to the required protocol CAPMoN Standard Operating Procedures (SOP). There are also considerable technical duties in maintaining instruments and systems. Several programs require the changing of deposition air filter packs or canisters at intervals of 1, 3, 6, 7, 9 or 14 days. All the samples are then packaged and shipped as needed to the CAPMoN analytical chemistry laboratory located in Downsview, Ontario or the Environmental Science and Technology Centre (ESTC) laboratory in Ottawa. Other additional daily duties include reading and recording of various instrument systems outputs and diagnostics, the observing and recording of meteorological climate data, and regular servicing, troubleshooting and minor repair of monitoring equipment.