Dust Control – Soil Stabilization – Erosion Control

Posts Tagged ‘Dust’

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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This is just an excerpt from a much longer story dealing with the impact of coal mine and coal mine dust control. the reason for bringing this issue to the forefront here is because many of the coal mine operations that are dealing with dust control should be looking at SCI’s Haul Road dust control products to lower their water consumption. Dust control in the long term can be a source of savings when done right. Not only will you aid the environment by cutting back on coal dust emissions, but you will also lower the cost of legal fees when dealing with the effects of un-controlled dust. here is a short pieces of the full story.

For LJ Turner in Wyoming, coal mining is slowly taking away the vast acreage of his ranch.

"They’ve taken away our land, they’re taking away our water, they’re destroying our air – this is affecting us," said Turner. "We’ve been ranching on government leases since the 1930s, and (mining) has taken 6,000 acres from us so far." Campbell County, Wyoming, where Turner resides, produces a whopping 35% of the nation’s coal from a series of mining complexes that lay waste to miles of pristine prairie.

Turner said thankfully his family has 10,000 deeded acres that they cannot take away, but that land is still affected because the Powder River Basin mining operations are affecting the water.

"They’re depleting the surface aquifers very heavily," he explained. "And the coal bed methane is depleting the deeper aquifers, so we’re losing well water and creek water."

The Powder River Basin includes the nation’s largest surface mine, the Black Thunder Mine. Aquifers and rivers that once irrigated crops and watered cattle are now being used for power plants and dust suppression. Across the prairies and mountains of the Basin, communities have been divided. The region, once home to numerous Native tribes and then family ranches, is now a patchwork of coal mines, power lines, rail lines, and oil and gas wells.

For Otto Braided Hair, it was very important to share the realities of mining to folks who may not think about where their electricity comes from.

"Within minutes of where we live, in almost any direction, there is on-going destruction from coal mining," he said of his home in southeast Montana. "The blues skies are streaked with a brown haze of pollution, and the sacred waters are being threatened and damaged due to coal bed methane development, among other indications of disregard to the environment."

Otto said he wants to encourage people everywhere to think about more than just themselves.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-nilles/the-true-impact-of-coal-m_b_340420.html

Many municipalities are having trouble these days complying with the federal governments mandates on dust control Why? simply put, the banks have cut off credit to the consumers, which in turn has killed the consumer market which has killed many support industries which have ended many jobs thus creating a shortfall in the amount of revenue everyone is taking in… Including local and state governments. Is this accidental, I don’t think so but regardless, Dust control is mandated by the federal government and must be paid for some how. Some would say raise taxes to keep the coffers full. That only takes more away from the people that still have jobs. The end effect is the government gets larger and the citizens supporting said government get poorer. is this the dust road we wish to travel. I don’t think so. SCI can help the local governments by aiding them in meeting these mandated requirements while at the same time conserving their precious resources. This next story is not only about dust Control it is about survival of a small town in the USA.

An increase in the Nye County gas tax from 4 cents per gallon to 7 cents was a necessity in light of a 32 percent decline in gas tax revenues, the Nye County Regional Transportation Commission decided Monday.

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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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It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that when banks cut off credit lines to consumers the backlash reaches all the way to city hall. Many people blame the mess on the sub-prime home owners. But the FBI found that 80% of the illegal activity was promoted by the bankers and not the borrowers. So what ya gonna do.. Give the banks a bailout. while the rest of the human race suffers for playing by the rules, the bankers head out on the government funded yachts to drink it up with the politicians that gave them the free money. So let the small towns suffer and let the dust fly in the air for they don’t give a damn. Just be sure to pay your bills on time or they will take your town.

Cash flow is of great concern for Monticello City Manager Myron Lee.  At the October 27 meeting of the Monticello City Council, Lee presented current sales tax deposits from the Utah State Tax Commission.

After months of budget discussion earlier in the year, the council had decided to raise sales tax projections from $305,000 (the amount received in 2008) to $346,000 in order to balance city budgets.

However, based on the latest numbers, sales tax collections are headed in the wrong direction.  After one third of the budget year, sales tax revenues are down more than $50,000 from 2008.

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Among the range of solutions that Odourdust Dust Control can offer for stopping dust rise or to suppress it from the air is Buffalo Turbine’s Monsoon. This unit will move water or other fluid through a proprietary gyrating atomizing nozzle, which will expel solution from a rotating hub through a screen at the perimeter of the atomizing nozzle. This results in a high speed impact that pulverises the fluid into a uniform spectrum of droplets.

When formed the tiny droplets will mix with the highly turbulent airflow generated by the Buffalo Turbine 14" single stage turbine, and will be projected into the air. The 50-200 micron size droplets will collect and trap airborne Dust Particulates and odours, ultimately resulting in an immediate reduction of pollution on site.

No generator is required for this diesel-driven, portable unit. Wireless nozzle and throttle control and oscillating stand and a reach of 40 m provides controlled dust suppression for a range of sites.

Now i can see the residents point of view as well as Mr. White’s. It takes time to complete projects like this and staging is part of the game. You don’t redo you dust control every day. The people have a right to clean air and the builder has the obligation to keep it that way. Bu some times we each have to think of the others situation. I guess if he has started with a dust control product like Top-Seal from the very start he would have been in better shape. I can promise you it would have been less than 10k per day.

The state’s Department of Ecology issued a violations notice and order to developer Calvin White for not taking care of dust control problems at two East Wenatchee subdivisions he has been in the process of developing since 2006.

The notice of violations and order, dated Sept. 23, indicates White could face a $10,000 civil penalty each day for each violation if he does not take corrective action.

White has 30 days to appeal the corrective order the DOE issued along with the violations notice; but in the past two weeks, he has been busy at Aspen Hills and Calalina Crest subdivisions north of East Wenatchee. He put in a road, leveled a mountainous pile of dirt and hydroseeded the two properties with an erosion-control seed mix.

Susan Billings, DOE’s section manager for the Central Regional Air Quality Section out of Yakima, said the department has received steady complaints from neighbors of the two subdivision sites.

The notice said neighbors provided detailed reports about ongoing impacts to their health and welfare, damage to their property and inability to enjoy their residences indoors or outside.

Dave Hulligan, whose duplex was situated next to a nearly 60-foot-high pile of soil on White’s land until White leveled it Thursday, said, “It’s almost like living in a sandstorm.”

He said if his garage door is open for even a few minutes, the fine particulate fills up his tool cases.

“My mom, who is staying with me, has asthma, and at times it is impossible for her to breathe,” Hulligan said.

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The Veolia materials recycling facility (MRF) at Mansfield, officially opened on 10^th March by the Chairman of Nottinghamshire County Council The Hon. Joan Taylor MBE, is a state of the art waste separation and handling centre housed in a new dedicated building. Through O Kay Engineering Services Ltd., Dantherm Filtration were contracted to provide the necessary dust control measures. As all plant is situated within the building, floor space and headroom were significant factors in the selection of the extraction equipment. Two Dantherm Cyclopac 4Y5 cyclonic dust collectors with a combined capacity of 52,300m³/h, were installed to extract from eight conveyor transfer points and three air knives. These filter units handle the maximum airflow volume whilst occupying only about 3m² of floor space each. The other air knife was served by a separate Dantherm MJB tubular bag filter. Waste from each Cyclopac filter is discharged via a rotary valve into two separate bins fitted with castors for convenience.

Whilst footprint and headroom were key reasons why O Kay Engineering selected Dantherm, they also wanted to use a single supplier for all the dust control needs. To this end, Dantherm also supplied four air knives with dedicated blower fans rated at 1870m³/h each associated with a Dantherm NFV material separator. Nordfab QF clipped and FL ducting, manufactured by Dantherm, was used throughout, extracting from purpose designed hoods for each function. A further requirement was full ATEX compliance for all relevant components. The new filter units, rotary valves and material separators  have all been externally tested and carry ATEX EC-Type Examination certificates.

Working in close cooperation with the customer, Dantherm’s  project team Adrian Sharpe and Chris Mumford were able to supply every aspect of the dust control system unobtrusively to meet the exacting needs of the processes.

Dantherm Filtration Ltd.,
Limewood Approach,
Seacroft , Leeds LS14 1NG

People who live on heavily traveled limerock roads will see some relief in the future.

County commissioners voted 5-0 to adopt the next phase of the five-year surface treatment plan, which allocates money for dust control to limerock roads most in need.

County Engineer Charles Mixsone said county commissioners have approved putting $390,000 into its limerock road surface treatment program to help with dust control.

During the next five years, the program will apply surface treatment for dust control on roughly 15 miles of selected limerock roads in the county. That amounts to three miles per year for five years.

The roads getting treated fall into certain categories, including amount of traffic, proximity to major highways and number of people who live on the street.

Roads targeted for treatment in 2010 include Sharon Court, Lewis Lane, August Avenue and Batten Road.

This story is not uncommon to us. many time good intentions don’t always end up the way we want them to. In this case the method used for erosion control is not exactly panning out the way they expected, now they have a dust control problem as well as an erosion control nightmare about to take place.

Had anyone else built this hillside near the U.S.-Mexico border, it would look nothing like it does. The barren hill would be alive with native plants, the earth would be solidly rooted and not a threat to tumble down into the Tijuana Estuary, a lush, 2,500-acre salt marsh that starts 600 feet away.

But along the newly constructed border fence near the Pacific Ocean in Border Field State Park, inch-thick tan clumps of seeds and mulch still blanket the ground. They haven’t been watered, so no plants have grown.

When Top-Seal is used for erosion control and or dust control, the application can be adjusted so that the end result will promote growth of new vegetation. In farming there is a practice called moisture banking. The objective is to leave the soil undisturbed after there has been a long soaking rain. This rain will create a protective crust on the surface of the soil. This crust will help keep the moisture in the soil. When Top-Seal is used to create this protective layer for either erosion control or dust control, the effects are even more drastic. In the long run, the moisture that is banked and the sealed, is there for the seeds to utilize for growth.

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