Dust Control – Soil Stabilization – Erosion Control

Archive for the ‘coal’ Category

An environmental advocacy group known as Environment Virginia released a report this week that identifies Alexandria’s Mirant coal-fired power plant as the second dirtiest in Virginia. The report, titled "America’s Biggest Polluters," used carbon dioxide emissions data from 2007 to conduct an analysis of the plants and create a ranking system. The finding comes at a time when city officials are coordinating with Mirant to erect a 30-foot windscreen in an effort to control fugitive dust from the plant.

"It’s very disappointing, but I must say it’s not surprising," said Councilwoman Del Pepper. "I’m hopeful that with the $ 34 million we got to improve the plant will address some of the problems."

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U.S. Department of Labor
Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA)

Respirable coal mine dust can cause lung diseases such as coal workers’ pneumoconiosis (CWP), emphysema, silicosis, and bronchitis—known collectively as black lung. Black lung can lead to lung impairment, permanent disability, and even death. While there is no cure for black lung, there are important and potentially life-saving measures that MSHA requires to be undertaken to reduce exposure to respirable coal mine dust and prevent disease. Even though these measures have been required for many years, new cases of black lung disease continue to occur among the nation’s coal miners, even in younger miners.

Recently, MSHA conducted a targeted enforcement initiative that focused on miners’ exposures to respirable coal mine dust at selected underground coal mines. As a result of the lessons MSHA learned during this initiative, the agency requests that underground coal mine operators conduct audits of their respirable dust monitoring and control programs and address any deficiencies.

Dust sampling programs did not adequately address proper maintenance of sampling equipment or ensure that samples are collected at the required times (either on shifts or days).

Many mining operations implement a haul road dust control program in order to decrease the level of fugitive dust in the work area. 

Full story here

FANQUIP’S Mining Division provides mines and quarries with total conceptual planning and custom design, heavy duty products, installation of ventilation and air control systems.

Company specialists can advise on strategic air control at the development stage or integrate into plants which have been in operation for some length of time. Fanquip’s Mining Division focuses on temperature control, ventilation, management of confined space environments, dust control  both in suppression and collection, and management of toxic gases and emissions.

Haul Road Dust Control  is a fundamental element to the efficient venture of a mining company. Not only with regards to security but as well to the employees wellbeing.  Surface mining operations use huge off-road haul trucks extensively to move material at mining properties. Historical research, using the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) emissions factors for unpaved haul roads, has revealed that haul trucks produce the bulk of dust emissions from surface mining sites, accounting for approximately 78%-97% of total dust emissions. This is even greater with a low value haul road dust control  program.

Observations of dust emissions from haul trucks prove that if the dust emissions are unrestrained, they can be a safety danger by means of impairing the operator’s visibility. This increases the likelihood for haul truck accidents. Yet, the greatest long-term health risk of dust generated from hauling operations is due to breathing of the respirable dust [median diameter <4 micrometers (μm)] and thoracic dust, which is equivalent to the EPA’s definition of PM10 [particulate matter with a median diameter <10 μm]. Exposure to respirable dust has always been considered a health hazard on surface mining operations, particularly if silica dust is there.

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Federal officials unveiled a three-pronged strategy to combat black lung disease during a meeting Thursday at the National Mine Health and Safety Academy in Beaver.

Mining officials and medical experts say education, stricter enforcement and new regulations can curb the disease, which has been on the rise in the region and has killed some 10,000 miners in the last decade.

Thursday’s meeting was the first of four informational sessions planned by Mine Safety and Health Administration.

“There is a collective agreement that we have to fix this problem,” MSHA Director Joseph Main told a packed room that included representatives from mining companies, the United Mine Workers of America and former miners suffering from the ailment.

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New rules to reduce miners’ exposure to coal dust will be proposed within a couple of weeks, according to the nation’s top mine supervisory body.

Joseph Main, the new head of the federal Mine Safety and Health Organization, said he has long thought there is “a need to lower the intensity of unhealthy dust in mines,” and he indicated that a new, wearable dust control monitor that can continuously measure miners’ contact to coal dust may be part of the new rules.

“A mechanism has been built, it has been tested, I’ve worn it myself. It works,” Main told the media in a meeting call Friday. “It’s a tool we can now utilize to help fix this dilemma of unhealthy coal mine dust that has plagued miners.”

That dust can cause deadly black lung, which has killed more than 21,000 miners from Kentucky and other coal-producing states since the mid-1980s.

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Mexico’s pocito coal mines are in a few ways stuck in the times of yore – the far-off past.

Mined by means of air hammers as well as pickaxes, bereft of dust control or consistent monitoring of volatile methane gas, the pocitos utilize methods old-fashioned within the United States a century before.

Two latest disasters that killed 25 miners exposed the ancient state of affairs. Last week, 13 miners drowned after a mine called La Espuelita flooded and the men couldn’t flee. The catastrophe came four months following another pocito, La Morita No. 49, exploded and killed 12.

Each one of the pocitos, approximately 30 miles apart in Mexico’s solitary coal-mining region, had a solitary vertical bore, violating safety standards adopted within Mexico and other countries long ago.

“Today, American coal mines are required to have a minimum of 2 shafts. That’s something that we learned way back in the 19th century,” said mine engineering Lecturer Chris Haycocks of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute.

Small seams of coal resembling those that pocitos mine are disregarded by up to date American operations, said Jerry Herndon of the United States Mine Health and Safety Academy in West Virginia.

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3 groups threatening to file a lawsuit against Alaska Railroad Corp.

ANCHORAGE – When the north wind blows in Seward, dust flies off a large pile of coal and covers the town’s scenic boat harbor in black grit.

"It is just very, very, very dirty. It piles up against homes. I get reports of it in windowsills, inside locked cars, inside boats. Folks come back after the winter and find piles of it inside their locked up boats," said Russ Maddox with the Resurrection Bay Conservation Alliance.

That local group has tried for years to fix the problem, and now three conservation groups are threatening to file a lawsuit against Alaska Railroad Corp. and Aurora Energy Services LLC, alleging they are discharging coal without a permit into Resurrection Bay – a popular destination for summer tourists.

Trustees for Alaska, a public interest law firm representing the Alaska Center for the Environment, Alaska Community on Toxics and the Alaska chapter of the Sierra Club late last month issued a 60-day notice of intent to sue.

The groups accuse the railroad and Aurora Energy of violating the federal Clean Water Act.

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