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SOURCE ASSESSMENT: CRUSHED SANDSTONE, QUARTZ, AND QUARTZITE, STATE-OF-THE-ART
Citation:
Chalekode, P., T. Blackwood, AND R. Wachter. SOURCE ASSESSMENT: CRUSHED SANDSTONE, QUARTZ, AND QUARTZITE, STATE-OF-THE-ART. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/2-78/004N.
Description:
This report describes a study of atmospheric emissions from the crushed sandstone, quartz, and quartzite industry. Particulates are emitted from drilling, blasting, loading and unloading trucks, transport on unpaved roads, washing, crushing, screening, conveying, and stockpiling. The emission factor for respirable particulates from processing is 3.6 g/metric ton; washing, screening, crushing, and vehicular movement on unpaved roads contribute approximately 80% of the value. Free silica is the hazardous constituent of the emitted dust. Emission factors for carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and fibers are 1.68 g/metric ton, 2.85 g/metric ton, and 1,360 fibers/metric ton, respectively. In order to evaluate the potential environmental effect of this industry, source severity was defined as the ratio of the maximum ground level concentration of an emission to be ambient air quality standard for criteria pollutants or to a modified TLV for noncriteria pollutants. The maximum source severity due to respirable free silica emission from a representative plant is 0.91. Air pollution control is not widely applied to emissions from crushed sandstone, quartz, and quartzite operations.