Q. Where did these FAQs come from?
These Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) are my responses to a series of questions that I have been asked by Gladstone community members.
If you have any questions, please contact me at ask@gilg.com.au, kurt.heidecker@gilg.com.au or by using the “Email” button on the www.gilg.com.au web page.
cheers for now, Kurt.
Q. What is the brown haze that you can see around Gladstone when you're out to sea?
At certain times of the year, particuarly in winter, nitrogen dioxide and other emissions can be captured in an atmospheric layer. When UV light interacts with these compounds, a brown haze is formed. This is what can be seen out to sea.
Q. What's in Brown Haze?
The brown haze is nitrogen dioxide with a mixture of other nitrogen oxides. The majority of nitrogen dioxide in the Gladstone air shed comes from the Gladstone Power Station but it can come from any source where high temperature combustion occur eg motor vehicles, welding and furnaces.
Q. How does brown haze happen?
Nitrogen dioxide is formed from the burning of coal. Initially nitric oxide is formed when the coal is burned at 1300 - 1500 degrees Celsius. At this point greater than 80% of the nitrogen oxide comes from the reaction of oxygen with the nitrogen from the air. The remainder comes from the burning of the nitrogen in the coal.
Once released from the stack a series of complex reactions occurs over a period of time where the nitric oxide reacts with air in the presence of ozone and photo- chemicals in the upper levels of the atmosphere to form nitrogen dioxide.
Q. Is brown haze bad for me?
Nitrogen dioxide is the majority of the haze. In the case of the NRG power station, who is the largest emitter in Gladstone, nitrogen dioxide is dispersed via 153 metre high stacks.
The height of these stacks was chosen as modelling shows that this provides enough height for flue gases to be emitted into the atmosphere without causing harmful concentrations at ground level.
However, on rare occasions the haze can descend to ground level. This happens when there is a combination of slight winds which do not disperse the emissions and an atmospheric inversion which causes the warmer haze to fall while colder atmosphere gases rise. This combination of circumstances is usually only lasts for a very short period during which time people may experience irritation of the eyes and respiratory tract.
Q. Does Acid Rain happen in Gladstone?
No. Acid rain is formed when there are both moisture and a high concentration of either sulphur dioxide or nitrogen dioxide in the atmosphere. Concentrations of at least 0.2 parts per million (PPM) nitrogen dioxide or 0.1 to 2.0 PPM sulphur dioxide are required to form acid rain. CHAG monitoring results typically show concentrations of nitrogen dioxide or sulphur dioxide at up to 0.03 PPM in Brisbane and 0.02 PPM in Gladstone. Gladstone's maximum concentrations of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide are therefore about a 10th of the minimum concentrations required to form acid rain.
Further information is available at: more about acid rain
Q. When rain falls through the brown haze, will it make acid rain?
The concentration and pH of rain which has passes through the brown haze will not cause any problems. This is because the concentration of the nitrogen dioxide which mixes with the water vapour prior to forming the rain droplet is too low.
Q. Have Gladstone trees died because of acid rain?
So far, the EPA has not found any evidence that acid rain has killed trees in Gladstone.
The EPA has found occasional evidence of withering of new tree growth in the mountain ranges surrounding Gladstone. Sulphur dioxide, which is one of the pollutants that can form Acid Rain, does affect young leaf growth in some delicate plants. Unfortunately, the research scientist was unable to attribute this withering to any specific cause (for example drought or sulphur dioxide).
Q. What's in dust?
Dust in Gladstone may include silica, clays, pollens, coal dust, alumina and magnesite. Particulates found in dust also come from vehicles, diesel trucks and exhausts from ships, planes and heavy equipment. These all add to the combined particulate (dust) load in the air and affects the air's quality.
Q. Is dust bad for me?
Dusts can be harmful depending on their chemical composition, the quantity of dust that is inhaled, the size of the dust particulates and the sensitivity of the person to the dust. Some dusts in small quantities may be only a nuisance to one person but to a person with respiratory problems it could be quite harmful.
Q. Can I still eat food out of my garden?
There is no evidence to suggest that dust or air emissions would make this unsafe.
However, good hygiene practice would dictate that you should rinse fruit and vegetables as you normally would when obtaining fruit and vegetables from the supermarket.
Q. How can I get dust tested?
Community members can request that either a GILG member or the EPA take sample of any dust deposits.
Alternatively, you can also contact GILG to obtain sampling equipment and be taught the correct process for taking dust samples. These samples can then either be tested by the EPA or a GILG member.
Q. Has Industry undertaken a hazard analysis of risk of storage tanks leaks or blow outs etc
To gain ISO 140001 status, risk assessments and pathways for high and critical risks must be determined.
Q. Why wasn't the power station built further away from town?
Originally, when the power station was being planned it was considered 'out of town' - five kilometres from the closest community housing. The site was chosen because the power station was designed to use sea water for cooling purposes rather than scarce fresh water and so had to be close to Auckland Creek and the Calliope River. However, over time Gladstone has grown and some housing and medium sized businesses have encroached on the boundaries of the power station.Q. What is the material that is picked up in Cement Australia trucks at BSL and taken to Cement Australia?
This material is calcined ash. This ash is made from the spent cell linings of BSL's Reduction Cells which have been heated and dried and is burnt in Cement Australia's cement kiln.
Q. How effective are bag houses?
The installation of fabric filter bags on coal fired boilers normally captures over 99.5% of dust emissions. Further improvements in fabric technologies and material composition are likely to improve this further in the future.
Q. What about the ultra fine particles that bag houses don't catch?
Particles less than 1 micron (which is 1/60th the diameter of a human hair) are released into the atmosphere as their small size means that they can not be captured in the weave of the fabric.
While baghouses are the best available technology, the weave and flexibility of textiles used in fabric filter bags is continuously being improved so baghouse performance may also improve in the future.
Q. Have trees died because of Fluoride?
Fluoride emissions are monitored at BSL for two reasons; firstly fluoride has a significant impact on the environment and secondly, the smelter is one of the major Fluoride emitters in Gladstone. Although fluoride emissions are relatively safe for humans in the ambient environment, some plants are sensitive and can be affected through reduced growth rates and leaf damage.
BSL monitors all major point sources for fluoride but also measures fluoride concentrations in the ambient air and collects leaf samples to better understand the impacts on the surrounding environment.
Q. When Spent Cell Linings from BSL are burnt in the Cement Australia kiln, where do the pollutants go?
The ash from the alternate fuels is used as a raw material to manufacture clinker. Therefore, any pollutants found within the alternative fuel is combined in the clinker produced. These pollutants will remain stabilised in the clinker for the lifetime of the material.
Q. What is the Gladstone Industry Leadership Group
The Gladstone Industry Leadership Group is an industry association that aims to build an open and trusting relationship between industry and the community. The Group was officially launched on December 16, 2008.
Q. Who is involved in the Gladstone Industry Leadership Group?
The Group is made up of 5 members:
- Boyne Smelters Limited
- Cement Australia
- NRG Gladstone Operating Services
- Queensland Alumina Limited
- Rio Tinto Alcan - Yarwun
The group's General Managers make up the GILG Board:
- Guy Fortin - Boyne Smelters Limited
- Kevin Doyle - Cement Australia
- Glenn Schumacher - NRG Gladstone Operating Services and GILG Chairman.
- Phil Campbell - Queensland Alumina Limited
- Mike Dunstan - Rio Tinto Alcan - Yarwun
The group has a CEO, Kurt Heidecker, who reports to the Board. A key part of the CEO's job is to understand community concerns and make sure these are heard and acted upon by industry.
The CEO is also responsible for setting the direction for the Group and for the development of an Environmental Transparency Framework.
Q. Why did the Group form?
The group formed in response to community concerns about the health impacts from industry emissions. Industry realised that a collective approach was needed where industry worked together with the community and Government to resolve concerns.
Q. What's in the odour around Gladstone?
Odour is distinct to the alumina refining process worldwide and is generated from the Digestion section where decayed organic matter (vegetation such as sticks and tree roots) in the bauxite is broken down during the process.
Q. How does odour happen?
In alumina refining odour is generated from the Digestion section where decayed organic matter (vegetation such as sticks and tree roots) in the bauxite is broken down during the process.
Q. Where does the odour come from?
During the alumina refining process organics that are broken down can create volatile organic compounds, some of which are non condensable. An one site a thermal oxidiser onsite has been commissioned to combust the majority of non condensable gases which has reduced odour by around 40%.
Alternatively, another sites introduces these gases into their boilers where they are burnt.
Investigation of further odour reduction initiatives is ongoing.
Q. Industry has not been fined for any environmental breach.
The EPA takes its regulatory responsibilities very seriously. For example, the EPA finalised eight prosecutions under the Act during 2007–08. Fines imposed by courts totalled $304,850 and investigation costs of $10 000 were awarded. Three EPA prosecutions remained to be finalised at 30 June 2008. The EPA also finalised seven prosecutions under the Act during 2005–06. Fines imposed by courts totalled $330,000 and investigation costs of $3,500 were awarded
The Environmental Protection Act 1994 provides a range of enforcement options from infringement notices and orders that the EPA can issue, to prosecutions and restraint orders. Over the past five years, EPA enforcement action has resulted in nine custodial sentences and almost $3 million in fines and costs resulting from environmental prosecutions.
In addition, there have been 15 restraining orders and over 550 statutory orders used which have required almost $440 million in expenditure on environmental improvements.
One of the very first prosecutions by the EPA involved a company in Gladstone. As a result of that prosecution, the company invested almost $300 million dollars in upgrading its technology to reduce the risk of environmental harm.
Offences against the requirements of the Environmental Protection Act 1994 are criminal offences and require a criminal standard of proof. It is not always possible to gather the evidence that satisfies that standard of proof, when dealing with complex environmental problems. What may seem to be a simple matter of fact can have many underlying aspects that cause there to be a reasonable doubt about the cause and responsibility for an incident.
When considering enforcement action, the EPA aims to achieve consistency and fairness in enforcement. The Enforcement guideline provides guidance on how the EPA achieves this goal. The guideline also assists business in determining what behaviour will show compliance and consequently minimise the likelihood of prosecution.
For the EPA source of this information please see: EPA's FAQs or EPA 2008 Court Actions or EPA's 2008 Annual Report
For example, BSL received a fine in 2007 for exceeding its license requirements on Fluoride in January. Following this, BSL submitted an Environmental Management Programme (EMP) to the EPA detailing the actions to be undertaken to restore the smelter to compliance.
Actions included an accelerated filter bag replacement programme, new hoods to cover the reduction cells and a new style filter bag trial. All actions to be undertaken by BSL under the EMP were completed in November 2007.
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Q. If CHAG monitoring gives a poor result the data, is all that day's data deleted?
CHAG monitoring and sampling is conducted independently of Industry by the EPA with chemical analyse completed by Queensland Health and the CSIRO.
As the emission quantities being measured by EPA monitoring and sampling equipment are very low, the equipment can be sensitive to humidity, electrical power variations and vibration. Hence because of these factors, there may be rare occasions when accurate data cannot be collected by this equipment and has to be deleted.
Q. Industry doesn't monitor its emissions - it's all guessestimation
As part of industry licence requirements and reporting to the EPA, a number of emissions have to be measured and reported. Due to the larger scope of emissions requiring reporting to the NPI, a combination of estimation and direct measurement techniques is permissible. Estimation techniques are based on the best scientific research and information.
Further information about Emission Factors is available at: More about Emission Factors
Q. The people doing the testing can't be trusted. The Government is too reliant on royalties from Industry to give a truthful answer
CHAG monitoring tests are completed by EPA and Queensland Health labs in Brisbane and CSIRO. These labs are quality assured and regularly tested by National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA) which is Australia's national laboratory accreditation authority. The EPA also occasionally sends identical samples to two different labs to make sure that the results provided are the same for both samples.
Additionally, there are examples where these same Government department labs have truthfully identified poor quality issues in Mt Isa and Brisbane and it would be reasonable to expect that these labs will do so as well in Gladstone, if and when that is the case.
Q. Will the EPA's monitoring results be lower than normal as industry production has been cut back?
The answer to this question has two parts.
Firstly, GILG member production has not in fact been reduced but rather is at normal levels with some GILG members actually being ahead of their 2009 production targets.
Secondly, the EPA tracks production levels at each GILG site. So the results of community air testing can be matched to current production levels and this in turn will be factored into the EPA’s Gladstone air shed computer model.
Q. Does Industry increase production at night so they can pollute more when no one notices?
Industry operates 24 hours and day, 7 days a week and production levels are maintained at constant levels as much as possible. Industry is required to meet their licensing limits on a 24 hour basis.
Q. We can't see Industry's licences because they're scared to show us.
Industry licences are public documents and can be accessed from the Environmental Protection Agency at Level 3, Centrepoint Building, 136 Goondoon Street, Gladstone. Alternatively, in mid-May 09 GILG will release GILG member environmental licences together with explanatory information on the GILG web site.
Q. Why doesn't Industry use scrubbers like they do in Europe?
Sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide are produced when coal is burnt. Scrubbers only effectively remove sulphur dioxide and not nitrogen dioxide from the waste gases from coal combustion.
While sulphur dioxide scrubbers have been installed in the Mt Isa lead smelter and power stations overseas, this approach is effective because the concentration of sulphur dioxide in the flue gases in these locations is much higher than in Gladstone. So, while the amount of sulphur dioxide produced by industry is Gladstone is significant (51,000 tonnes per year), because it is produced over a full year and from a number of locations, the sulphur dioxide is of such a low concentration to make scrubbers ineffective and, according to detailed EPA and GILG modelling, unnecessary.
Q. Have GILG members cut corners on the environment as pressure builds on their budgets?
GILG members continue to be committed to their Health, Safety, Environment and Community policies despite the current economic crisis. While Capital expenditure has been reduced, GILG members have sustained their maintenance levels by more efficient shift rosters and patterns.
Some GILG members have also been able to maintain their capital investment budgets for Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) projects despite significant non-HSE Capital reductions elsewhere.
Q. When the pipeline to the Yarwun red mud dam broke, I heard that it caused terrible environmental damage. What happened and why?
On Tuesday 29 July 2008 blockages of built up scale residue were found inside the pipeline which continuously removes red mud residue from the alumina refining process to the residue management area (RMA) for storage. A plan to clean the line of blockages by cutting the pipeline, cleaning and re-welding sections was developed in consultation and co-ordination with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). During this time residue mud was transported by truck to the RMA via the main public road.
The work was a highly controlled activity with stringent environmental and safety requirements to ensure there were no long term environmental impacts resulting from the work. Remediation of the area was completed and a remediation assessment was compiled by an external consultant. The resulting report was provided to the EPA for review.
Q. Have Medical Doctors been removed from Gladstone hospital to hide the impact of air emissions on people?
No. Any changes to specialist Queensland Health manning are budgetary. Besides, Hospital admissions are tracked by Post Code so any impact of emissions on community health will be noted.
