PANAJI | July 03, 2017: The Indian School of Mines (ISM), Dhanbad, has suggested to the Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) a slew of short, medium and long-term measures to mitigate air pollution in Sonshi cluster. The suggestions include identification of alternative routes for ore transportation and sites to install monitoring stations as well as conducting regular inter-mine pollution control audit among other recommendations.
The ISM has also set a target for the concerned authority and mine owners to implement all the measures by October-end next year. It has suggested the period between July and December to implement the short-term measures while medium-term measures have to be implemented between October and March next year. The long-term measures have to be implemented from December till October-end next year.
With regard to the short-term action plan, the ISM has made individual mines jointly responsible for the implementation of measures by the end of December. The measures include the use of additional dust extractors or road sweeping machines on identified hot spots after full operational checks on efficacy of measures undertaken by individual leases as well as installation of wheel washing system and hot-mixing of remaining mine exit from jetty upto the nearest public road. It has also suggested to the individual mine leases to install wheel washing system by October-end at hot-mixed road portions of the mine exit point.
The draft plan has been submitted to the GSPCB and now forwarded to the scientific panel for fine-tuning before the GSPCB can agree to implement the identified measures on short, medium and long-term basis.
Experts from ISM have suggested the Sonshi cluster mining lease holders to identify alternative routes away from the habitation area for transporting iron ore and set a target of July-end for its implementation. It has suggested monitoring of the routes based on the applicable core or buffer zone guidelines.
After studying the situation, the ISM has suggested a joint inspection involving mining industry, PWD, GSPCB and mines department to identify hot spot road shoulders vulnerable to air pollution. This inspection and identification needs to be carried out within the target period of September.
It further asked the IIT Dhanbad to develop inter-mine air pollution control audit framework as well as prepare checklist for pollution prevention for each transportation route by August and further suggested monthly regular inter-mine pollution control audit that needs to get started from September.
Besides, the mining industry in Sonshi should consider the use of mobile water mist guns on trial basis between October and November to moisten the transportation routes. The ISM has also highly recommended a training programme starting from October for truck operators, mine officials, school teachers and personnel involved in monitoring and analysis, panchayat members and concerned department officials on their roles and responsibility during mine operation to avoid its mitigating impact.
In a medium-term measure, the mining industry, GSPCB and mines department have been suggested to have a uniform distribution of annual cap over a period of 200 days based on route capacity identified by ISM before October. The mining companies have also been asked by the ISM to install spill control devices on the transportation trucks in a time-bound manner between October and December.
In the long-term plan to check pollution, which needs to be implemented between December and October 2018, the ISM experts have suggested exploring the relocation and rehabilitation of habitation wherever identified in core areas of the mining leases and also asked to develop dedicated transport corridors across the mining clusters for the exclusive use of iron ore trucks 100 metres away from residential areas with separate routes for big trucks and bringing in restriction on timing for transporting ore.
(Source: http://www.navhindtimes.in/)