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Guidance on Assessment of Mineral Dust Impacts for Planning

29-06-2016

The Institute of Air Quality Management (IAQM) has released new guidance on assessing dust from mineral extraction sites.  

Penny Wilson of Air Quality Consultants was a member of the working group that developed the guidance.  The document has been prepared in the absence of any detailed government guidance for assessing dust from mineral sites at the planning stage, and provides advice on robust and consistent approaches to undertaking such assessments.  

The guidance uses a simple distance-based screening approach to determine the significance of any dust impacts.   Where significant impacts are likely, a basic assessment framework is provided to evaluate the risk of dust impacts and effects using the Source-Receptor-Pathway approach, similar to that used in the IAQM’s ‘Guidance on the Assessment of Odour for Planning’.

The guidance includes information on suitable mitigation at mineral sites; both ‘basic good design and best-practice measures’ and ‘site specific mitigation measures’, and also provides information on the recommended content of Dust Management Plans for minerals planning applications.

Air Quality Consultants is now applying the updated guidance to its air quality assessments for all new mineral extraction projects.



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