08-02-2013, 09:53 AM
ISSUES OF AIR POLLUTION IN ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF
DEVELOPMENT PROJECT
1ISSUES OF AIR POLLUTION .pdf (Size: 2.96 MB / Downloads: 348)
ABSTRACT
The aim of this study is to establish the trends in approaches and techniques being used to addressed the air
pollution issues in project-related development. The interest was to look at the overall issues of air pollution and
how it was dealt with in the context of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). 'However, the review was not
based upon individual Environmental Impact Assessment techniques. Twenty eight samples from four different
sectors were reviewed and information pertaining to construction activities, baseline conditions , impact predictions
and mitigating measures were extracted and analysed. It was established that only 17% of reports had described the
existing air quality in an appropriate manner. The construction activities was mainly confused with the description
of intended developmer.t. Only 39% had described the activities as ' true' construction activities. The impacts of
the construction phase on air quality for all projects were mainly associated with the generation of dust and
particulates and emissions from vehicles exhaust. The predictions were made through quantitative or qualitative
techniques. The later were being used in most projects. Nevertheless, there are reports especially from road
schemes, which did not mention, the impacts of construction phase of the projects on air quality, at all. There are
common mitigating meisures to all or most project types such as; wetting of exposed earth surfaces and unpaved
roads, covering transported materials which may potentially release dust and particles, imposing speed limits
within construction site. In order, to ensure that the mitigation measures will be implemented.
INTRODUCTION
With acc elarating urban and industrial growth, vast quantities of harmful waste products have been
released into the atmosphere , The rate of discharge is beyond the lim its of natur al cleansing abi lity and
'buffering ca paci ty' of the atm osphere (Elsom, 1992). A num ber of human based activit ies have been
responsible for these emissions. Amongst the most sig nifican t have been operat ion o f fossil fue l fire d
power sta tions , pet roleum refin er ies, petrochemical operatio ns, iron and steel mills, haza rdous wastes
incineration plant, major highways or freeways and airports. In a number o f less developed countries
controlled burni ng (of for ests has been responsible for much' air po llution. In add itio n, the co nstructio n
of many of the se facili ties ca use deterio ratio n of air quality. "cante r (19 95) also not es that the rates of
ac id precipitation, global warming, the presence of a number of ozone ho les, and in terms of hum an
health, ar ise in res pira tory di sord ers continue to cause alarm.
Air Pollution in Environmental Impact Assessment
The human acti vit ies that have led to deterioration in air qu ality were mainly co nfined to thei r
development proj ects , primarily to their operational stage and to agg regatio ns of such projects that
ca use cumulativ e effec ts. Env ironmental Impact Assessment (EIA) has recently been ack nowledged
and use d as an important planning and development tool (Wathern, 198 8). EIA allows the most likely
consequences o f a development proj ect to be anticipated prio r to the approval to commence any works
on it. Thus, it may be possible to mitigate the mos t polluting proj ects, to decide tha t they sho uld not
proceed, to approve thei r development at a more ap propriate locat io n, or to de ve lope them in some
modified way so as to reduce impacts upon atmospheric qual ity
Existing Air Qu ality
The way in which existing ambient air quality of the proposed project sites had been add ressed in the
reports were looked into. From the review , three ways of addressing the issues were antic ipated and
used as the crite ria for the avaluation. There are reports with: brief descr iptions of the air quality
without proper analytical quantification ; analytical quantification supporting the given descriptions; this
issue not mentio ned at all is the worst case.
The descriptive pattern according to these criter ia ranged from poor to good, that is, accross the full
range of qua lity. Most of the reports which attempted analytical quantification addressed the total
suspended particulates (TSP) and vehicle emissions
Hydropower
The existing air quality for hydropower schemes was seen from the reports to be mere ly descriptive.
The assessors writing the reports only descri bed air quality in qua litative terms as 'good ', ' high' and
'pristine'. No specific measurement was done to support their claims. Although the operational phase
of these projects would have no adverse effect, in at least one case, The Malaysian hydropower project,
involved biomass removal by burning.
Hydropower
All three reports reviewed attempted a descript ion of the construction phase. Mainly, the impacts of
construction phase thai were discussed were generation of dust and particulates from construction
activities and air pollution from vehicular emission s, especially heavy goods vehicles and excavators.
One report had discussed biomass burning, which could generate effects similar to open burning at
large scale .
Housing
Seven reports were see n to touch on the issue of construction. The common factors discussed were dust
and particulate matter generated from constructi on activities and emissions from vehicles. However,
there was one project that did not discussed these common factors . Rather, the risk of explosion of
methane gas on site during earth works, as the site had previously been used as a landfill area. One
project also involved massive quarrying activities during site preparation as the site was found to
provide a source grani te rocks which would generate money for the developer. In this case , therefore,
special circumstances dictated that it sould be considered.
CONCLUSION
It is clear that air quality issues of the construction phase of many diffe rent types of project have been
addressed in various ways of style , methods and techniques in their EIA reports. There are projects
which do not address this issue at all, although by right they should do so. There are projects which
attempt to address the issue, although the methods that are ado pted are unsuitable or inadequate.
Finally, there are projects which address the issue extensi vely, by including quantitative measurements
and predictions to support any qualitative statement that are made . The latter is clearl y the quality that
all projects should ach ieved in deal ing with ai r pollution issues arising from their acti vities .
Neve rtheless, implementations should follows wri tten commi tments to ensure that the air qual ity is
preserved at good standard.