A review of dust emission dispersions in rock aggregate and natural stone quarries Fugitive dust constitutes one of the most severe environmental problems in quarries because it escapes capture. This review aims to provide overview of dust concentration caused by quarrying by synthesizing the current knowledge. The 25 studies explored here were conducted in open-pit quarries or mines. Three main dust sources surfaced from the studies: drilling, crushing and hauling. Analysis revealed a range of dust concentrations caused by different quarrying operations. Crushing was the most significant dust source, while drilling caused the highest variation. Dust concentration decrease was observed with increasing distance, but the retention was incoherent due to local dust sources.

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Dust mass concentration and concentration decrease was studied in two natural stone quarries in Finland. The dust mass concentrations produced during drilling was measured at several distances with short time interval (5 s) sampling. The variation of concentration was high, and wind direction had a crucial effect on dust dispersion. The impact of weather conditions, such as temperature and relative humidity, on dust concentration were inconsistent. The dust produced during drilling was mainly coarse-grained and it settled quickly. The background mass concentration was attained from 55 to 105 m at the downwind direction from the drill. The fine particle mass concentrations were low during the measurements. The fine particles originated mainly from other, remote, sources and from the machinery used in the quarries. Local dust sources, such as hauling, had a significant impact on dust mass concentrations 1,* 2 1 2 even inside the quarry. The drilling capacity effected on dust mass concentration near the drill, but the impact vanished quickly with increasing distance.

This study compares modelling results to measured concentrations near dust sources in a natural stone quarry and in two aggregate quarries. In the natural stone quarry, the dust source was drilling and in the aggregate quarries, it was crushing. Aim is to evaluate performance of model BREEZE AERMOD under 200 m from the dust source, and to estimate AERMOD’s applicability to represent short time dust dispersion events. If the model can capture the short-term variation of dust dispersion, it is usable in evaluation of weather conditions, when dust prevention should be enhanced, or production even paused, if there are critical objects near the quarry. The comparison between the measured and the modelled concentrations showed, that the model reacted more severely to changes in weather conditions, whereas the measurements showed no significant changes. AERMOD was not able to predict hourly concentration fluctuation, which is assumed to result from the lack of on-site meteorological data. The emission factors (EFs) determined for drilling either overestimated or underestimated the dust concentration. Therefore, the EF for drilling needs further research to obtain results reflecting the measured concentration levels better. The EF for crushing predicted well the dust dispersion near the dust source during the summer, but the model was unable to predict the dust concentration increase during the wintertime caused by the ground inversion, trapping the dust particles to remain near the ground. Modelling is applicable to aggregate quarries operating during unstable (non-inversion) meteorological conditions. Usage of on-site weather parameters is recommended.