New Look at Dust Issues

A broad cross section of industry participants recently came together to discuss the key issues around dust control at quarry operations. CMPA Executive Director ROGER BUCKLEY reports on the outcomes of the workshop.

OVER 20 people from CMPA Member and non Member companies, government and unions attended the Dust Workshop held at Komatsu offices at Cambellfield on Thursday 8th October.

The Workshop aimed to outline the obligations of operator, raise the knowledge of industry participants on the issues around dust generation and control and to develop industry agreed best practices.

This material will help to enhance CMPA OH&S support sheets as well as provide input into WorkSafe guidance material.

The workshop was facilitated by Sarah Andrew and started with an educational presentation by Darren Watson, Inspector from WorkSafe. He provided an overview of the legislative and regulatory obligations of operators, and outlined some of the issues and overseas trends that may impact on Australia in the future.

This was followed by group discussions looking at sources of dust at each processing step of extraction, processing and stockpiles and sales with an outline of the issues for each of the sources.

A presentation by Naomi Oosting, Program Manager Environment of DPI discussed operational dust issues and control measures. This was followed by Dr Lyn Denison, Principal Scientist Air Quality of the EPA who provided an overview of air quality assessment and modeling to ensure compliance with the State Environment Protection Policy (SEPP) and the Protocol For Environmental (PEM) Management for Mining and Extractive Industries.

Lyn also indicated that if mobile crushers are not covered by planning permits, compliance to the SEPP and PEM is regulated by the EPA.

Teams then worked together to develop identify the positives and negatives for each of the proposed control measures at each of the previously identified sources of dust.

For example, the Workshop looked at dust developed as the material is conveyed during processing. Factors that contribute to the development of dust include:

• length of conveyor,
• the amount of drop at the discharge/feed points and the amount of air displaced,
• speed of the conveyor, and
• design of the conveyor skirts, covers etc.

The dust could be controlled from the conveyor primarily due to engineering controls such as:

• containment with skirts, covers, baffles and seals. These are effective, with a wide range of products available that are relatively cheap, but can be maintenance intensive.
• Dust extraction units can be installed and are effective with the correct application. They are however highly maintenance intensive, with expensive filters, consuming significant energy and can have manual handling issues.

The Workshop finished with a short word from the sponsor of the day, Komatsu.

NEXT STEPS

The Workshop attendees will have an opportunity to provide comments on the draft Workshop material. This will then be used to update CMPA material which will then be available as resource material for all members as well as providing input into the development of WorkSafe material.

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