Coal handling-guidelines
- 1. GUIDE LINES FOR COAL HANDLING UNITS:- (A) Location criteria 1. Coal handling unit/Agency shall not use any agriculture land and shall be located at a minimum distance of 250 meters away from the surrounding agriculture land. 2. Government waste land not suitable for any agriculture purpose meeting with the requisite siting / distance criteria shall be preferred for establishing coal handling units. 3. Coal handling unit/Agency shall be minimum 500 meters away from the residential area, school/colleges, Historical Monuments, Religious Places, Ecological sensitive area as well as forests area. 4. Coal handling unit/Agency shall be located at a minimum 500 meters away from the Railway line, Express ways, National Highways, State ways and District Roads and from water bodies like River, Nala, Canal, Pond etc. 5. In case of coal handling activities at the ports and jetties or extension thereof, the distance and land use criteria may be relaxed and compensated by advanced/sophisticated pollution control measures and mechanization & thick plantation, however all such ports and jetties, where coal handling is carried out, shall provide closed conveyor belt and mechanization for handling of coal.
- 2. (B) Storage and handling criteria 6. Coal handling unit/Agency shall store coal in such a way that coal heap should not be higher than 5 meter and clear distance between two adjoining heaps at G.L. should be 5 meters, so that in case of fire, approach is available. 7. There should be mechanized loading/ unloading system from the loading /unloading area to the stacking yards and in to the vehicles. 8. Coal handling unit/Agency shall take all corrective steps to resolve the issue of air pollution at permitted coal storage/handling area where coal is being stored. (C) Transport criteria 9. Coal handling unit/Agency shall ensure that all trucks before leaving the storage yard shall be showered with water with adequate system, Shall be covered with tarpaulin or any other effective measure/device completely and also that trucks are not over loaded as well as there is no spillage during transportation. 10.The vehicle carrying the coal should not be overloaded by raising the height of carriage. Weigh scale shall be provided within the loading area only and port / coal park authority shall ensure that no overloading is done.
- 3. 11.The top of the vehicle should be covered with fixed cover instead of tarpaulin cover to avoid spillage or dusting of coal. 12. Coal handling unit/Agency shall obtain transport permission from the local Administration under the relevant rules. (D) Pollution prevention criteria 13. Coal handling unit/Agency shall provide paved approach with adequate traffic carrying capacity 14. Coal handling unit/Agency shall construct compound wall all along periphery of the premises with minimum 9 meters height 15. Continuous water sprinkling shall be carried out on the top of the heap at regular intervals to prevent dusting, fire & smoke. To prevent fugitive emission during loading/unloading, fixed pipe network with sufficient water storage and pump shall be installed. Water sprinkling shall be carried out at each and every stage of handling to avoid generation of coal dust or other dust within premises 16. Coal handling unit/Agency shall ensure regular sweeping of coal dust from internal and main road and also ensure that there is adequate space for free movement of vehicles. 17. The following adequate Air Pollution Control Measures shall be installed and to be operated efficiently. (a) Dust containment cum suppression system for the coal stack, loading and unloading.
- 4. (b) Construction of effective wind breaking wall suitable to local condition to prevent the suspension of particles from the heaps. (c) Construction of metal road & RCC Pucca flooring in the plot area/ godown etc. (d) System for regular cleaning and wetting of the floor area within the premises. (e) Entire coal storage area/ godown should be covered with permanent weather shed roofing and side walls i.e., in closed shed, in case of crushing/sieving/grading activity is carried out (i.e. G. I. Sheet) along with adequate additional APCM should be installed. 18. Coal handling unit/Agency shall carryout three rows plantation with tall growing tress all along the periphery of the coal handling premises, inside & outside of the premises along with road. 19. Proper drainage system shall be provided in all coal storage area so that water drained from sprinkling & runoff is collected at a common tank and can be reused after screening through the coal slit or any other effective treatment system. 20. All the engineering control measures and state of art technology including covered conveyer belts, mechanized loading and unloading, provision of silo etc. shall be provided in addition to the measures recommended in the environmental guidelines for curbing the pollution.
- 5. (E) Safety requirement 21. Coal handling unit/Agency shall provide adequate fire fighting measure to avoid any fire or related hazards including adequate water storage facility, and the premises shall be exclusively used for storage of the coal. 22. An onsite emergency plan shall be prepared and implemented by coal handling unit. (F) Legal criteria 23. Necessary permission from all the applicable regulatory authorities and adequate steps under the provisions of applicable environmental acts/ rules shall be taken. 24. Coal handling unit/Agency shall prepare EMP (Environment Management Plan) and implement the same in true spirit and thus maintain overall environment of that area. 25. Coal handling unit/Agency shall not carry out the operation of loading/unloading of coal/coal dust at any place, till adequate air pollution control equipment for dust control/suppression are installed and efficiently operated and the consent under the provisions of Air (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 is obtained by the coal yard owners/ Coal handling unit/Agency / coal importers.
- 6. 26. Coal handling unit/Agency shall operate continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations as per CPCB guideline. The results of parameters like SPM, RSPM, and SO2 and NOx shall be submitted to the SPCB every month. 27. In case of port which provides the facility to individual developers an agreement /MoU shall be made between port authority and developer for curtailment of pollution. Port authority shall be responsible for supervising and controlling the pollution control related activities and implementation of the environmental guidelines. 28. The concentration of the following parameters in the ambient air within the premises and a distance of 10 meters from the source (other than the stack/vent) shall not exceed the following levels. PARAMETERS PERMISSIBLE LIMIT Annual 24 Hrs Average Particulate Matter-10 (PM 10 ) 60 Microgram/M 3 100 Microgram/M 3 Particulate Matter- 2.5 (PM 2.5 ) 40 Microgram/M 3 60 Microgram/M 3 SO 2 50 Microgram/M 3 80 Microgram/M 3 NO x 40 Microgram/M 3 80 Microgram/M 3