Dust Management Workshop

CMPA Secretariat reports on the successful day recently held in the South West of Victoria for CMPA members.

On 16 March 2016 the CMPA held a second workshop (previously held in 2014) to expand on the collective knowledge of its members and to inform them of their responsibilities with respect to “Dust Management”.

The main objective of the day was to launch the new Dust Management Guideline in order to support CMPA members to meet the requirements of the Victoria Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 and the Victorian Environment Protection Act 1970.

In doing so, the CMPA endeavours to:

Provide members with appropriate management practices required to minimise potential health risks or environmental impacts associated with airborne dust arising from extractive industry operations.

Assist members in establishing and maintaining a Work Plan which defines operational activity so as to obtain and sustain an Extractive Industry Work Authority.

The day commenced at the Gateway Hotel in Corio with about 30 CMPA members in attendance including representatives from WorkSafe Victoria and the Environment Protection Authority.

The workshop was proudly sponsored by Oli Vibrators and Lab Tech Training and was facilitated by David McKelvie of Safemix who took us through the key areas of the guideline.

The scope of the Dust Management Guideline covers the health risks and the environmental impacts and their associated controls from both a workplace and a community perspective. The key points from the document are:

• being able to identify sources of dust generation in your workplace;
• hazards and health effects associated with dust;
• measurement of dust concentrations / reading dust monitoring reports; and
• controlling dust in alignment with the hierarchy of controls.

A number of Associate Members made presentations throughout the day including:

• Geoff Svenson from Access Environmental Systems who spoke about Dust Control Mitigation and how to deal with dust on your site using two high pressure fogging systems. Coolfog in situ systems and Duzteh mobile systems;
• Charles Pratt from Kinder Australia spoke about the containment and reduction of dust in conveyor transfer points using the K-Snap-Loc Dust Deal System and K-Skirting and Containment Seals; and
• Nick Harisis from Bureau Veritas concentrated on workplace personal dust monitoring and displayed practical examples of monitoring devices and respiratory protection devices.

A workers lunch brought opportunities to network with fellow members and to discuss what had been learned during the morning’s presentations.

After lunch consultants Ekitimo and Compliance Monitoring led by Andrew Lewis and Greg Sceneay informed us about Ambient Dust Monitoring for the extractives industry in Victoria which should be conducted in accordance with the site specific DEDJTR approved Work Plan and its accompanying Dust Management Plan.

The regulators Environment Protection Authority (EPA), Chris Bydder spoke about the protocols for environment management for the industry; whilst Worksafe Victoria’s Michael Terry and Bronwyn Haste spoke about regulations, inspections and enforcements for dust in quarries.

Mat Teesdale, Quarry Manager for Local Mix Quarries in Anakie provided a brief insight into the development and workings of the hard rock site before members got on the bus to view the site for
themselves. A good way to finish the day looking at methods of dust control in person.

Expectations were met with participants gaining a further understanding of the dust related issues.

“I gained a good understanding on dust exposure and containment.”
“Well presented and relevant presentations.”

Thanks to all who helped make the day such a success especially the presenters from Access Environmental Systems, Kinder Australia, Bureau Veritas, Ektimo, Compliance Monitoring and our regulators EPA and Worksafe Victoria.

Thank you to our sponsors Oli Vibrators and Lab Tech Training and to David McKelvie from Safemix for facilitating the workshop. Lastly to Local Mix Quarries for allowing us to visit their quarry.

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