5 Evaluating Dust Contaminant Exposure and Impact on Human Health and Community Well-Being associated with Coal Mining Activities

Thursday, 10 April 2014
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Solitude

EQUIPMENT DUST EMISSION IN SURFACE COAL MINING

Paper number: 5-3
Program: Theme Sessions
Time: 8:40 AM – 9:00 AM

Authors

Abstract

The objective of this research was to determine dust emission of mining equipment by field measurements in an operating surface coal mine in West Virginia, and compare the results with those obtained by EPA (AP-42) emission factor equations. A total of 141 dust concentration samples were collected in the mine, and we used a backward application of Gaussian equation to determine the dust emission factors. Dust concentrations at different distances from the mining equipment were measured by upwind-downwind method. The results of this study indicate that the level of dust concentrations obtained by EPA model exceed the actual levels from the studied mine. We also introduce new values of emission factors for a specific coal mine in West Virginia.