Dimensional Stone

Johnsons Wellfield Quarry (JWQ), well-known operators of a high quality dimensional stone quarry in Huddersfield, approached DustScan after seeing the product at the Hillhead Quarrying and recycling exhibition in 2003. They felt they may be held responsible for dust nuisance by some local residents, especially as recent housing development close to the site had introduced new residents with fresh concerns about dust from, for example, quarry operations.

With the exposed nature of the site and frequent high winds from the west, it was felt that a proportion of possible nuisance felt by the new residents was from off site sources. Frisbee gauges were installed as a preliminary monitoring exercise, but were soon vandalised. The initiative was taken by JWQ to adopt a low cost dust monitoring system that could be used to demonstrate dust movements into, out of and across their site.

After consulting DustScan, 5 directional dust gauges were installed within the site boundary and monitoring started in early autumn 2003. DustScan personnel have been working with JWQ to look for trends in dust coming from off site sources on to the site, also movements across and dust leaving the site. To better interpret the data JWQ have been using spatial mapping through the powerful visualisation resources available.

JWQ are recording weather data, which is used by DustScan to describe and explain dust movements and directions. Predominant wind directions are consistently reflected in the directional dust data that is obtained indicating at present no excessive dust sources on site. Contributing dust sources from off site have been identified to provide a better understanding of background dust levels for the area. Data collection is continuing with emphasis on evaluating location-specific trends. Monitoring continues on site with greater understanding of dust trends, sources and movements expected as we move into the dustier seasons.

Generally the sampling technique is proving to be very robust and may be used for additional laboratory analysis. In other applications XRD and SEM have been used successfully to identify the mineralogy of the dust collected. This may be used as means of dust fingerprinting for directional source matching.