THE dusty conditions that faced residents in January and gave Singleton’s air quality monitor is first exceedence were monitored by the compliance officers.
Fourteen complaints were received at the Singleton office in January and due to the hot conditions additional resources were allocated to undertake 18 dust inspections of coal mines.
The majority of mines were found to be operating to a satisfactory standard and further inspections are being scheduled however during the inspection of one mine, options were discussed to further reduce wind blown dust.
The compliance auditing report said the company offered to trial the watering down of open surfaces at night and use specialist dust control products. Two follow-up inspections have found an improvement in dust control.
During the inspections another mine was found to have two faulty water carts which resulted in the roads being very dusty. Following the inspection the audit states the mine company modified its haul routes and agreed to repair its carts. During subsequent inspections, the dust levels had fallen.
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