EDMONTON - Bucket brigades were trained in the Fort McKay and Three Creeks areas in Alberta this week to collect air samples to monitor pollution.

People in these areas say the provincial government hasn't taken adequate action to eliminate the pollutants they say are sickening people and animals.

Dozens of communities have used the bucket brigade technique since 1995, when the humble bucket was turned into a cheap, effective testing tool. A bag made of specialized plastic inside the 19-litre bucket holds the air sample, which is then shipped to an independent lab to be tested for dozens of chemicals. This is different than relying on government or industry monitoring, which tends to use permanent stations geared to test for only a few hand-picked chemicals.

The type of monitoring that's done by governments, although valuable, is about discovering general air trends for large areas, said Denny Larson, executive director of Global Community Monitor, a U.S.-based, non-profit environmental justice and human rights organization.

It's not suited to measuring what's going on in what he calls "hot spots" -- populated zones where the pollution tends to be the worst.

Global Community Monitor developed a system to help people organize their observations about pollution into credible scientific evidence, said Larson, who arrived in Edmonton on Tuesday after travelling to Fort McKay and Three Creeks over the last few days.

The brigades are taught a system of documenting environmental exposures, including things as simple as keeping log sheets of pollution events. "We use chain of custody forms, just like an environmental regulator or a consultant or a government inspector would use," said Larson.

"We have literally replicated the official regulatory government legal processes in every case, and we've just trained the community to use those same processes, from the paperwork to the protocols. In fact, we spent a year with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency doing side-by-side testing and developing the protocols to ensure the scientific and legal credibility of the bucket brigade ... ."

The evidence collected gives the communities the leverage they need to demand action. "It's been used in hundreds of court cases," Larson said. "However, in every single case the company has settled prior to going to trial, which is evidence of the power of the bucket."

Larson has been to 27 countries in the last 15 years doing this type of work and considers the weak regulations in Alberta "a shameful situation." He said a report on the results should be ready by mid-January.

Mark Cooper, spokesman for Alberta Environment, said the department would be interested in seeing details of how the organization collects its sampling. Accurate and reliable air monitoring is a complex and delicate process, he said.

Cooper acknowledged issues in both areas, but listed actions taken by the government to address them. Overall air quality was good in Fort McKay 99 per cent of the time in 2009, he said. The area has had issues with hydrogen sulphide concentrations that exceed government odour guidelines. "It's important to note we do recognize the odour nuisance that can exist in the region and it does impact people's lives, and as a regulator we are holding operators accountable."

In Three Creeks, Alberta Environment has been monitoring quality for several months and will continue to do so. Sampling canisters were given to residents to capture emissions. A Shell plant in the region had its environmental approval modified to reduce emissions. The department will monitor again over the winter to measure whether actions taken to reduce emissions have had the desired effect, he said.

Carmen Langer, who lives near Three Creeks, recently sold most of his family's cattle because they were getting sick. He will participate in a bucket brigade. He and his neighbours are willing to wake each other up at midnight to witness the samples, if that's what it takes. "I think it will show high levels of these carcinogens in the air." He hopes the government will then stand up and do something about it.