Heliland Air Quality PDF

Preview

Summary

Air quality impacted by the hypothetical helipad construction and operation near Adelaide Airport, with mitigation measures discussed to reduce or eliminate these impacts....

Description

EIA Chapter-Air Quality

Current Environment The proposed helipad site will be surrounded by a highly urbanised area consisting of residential and recreational services. Air quality monitoring is currently conducted at Adelaide Airport by the South Australian Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) for over a decade. Monitoring key pollutants such as: carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone (O3) and sulphur dioxide (SO2). Published data from EPA show that Adelaide Airport meet the requirements for air quality under the Environment Protection Act 1993 and National Environment Protection Measure 2003. The location of the helipad site would suggest that it does not have a direct impact from air quality currently due to emissions from residential, recreational and Adelaide Airport diffusing into an already polluted atmosphere. Helipad operations would fall under the same management strategies as Adelaide Airport because of the same ownership. AAL, tenants and aircraft operators collaborate to minimise emissions from activities such as aircraft operation, refuelling, painting, cleaning, machining, mechanical maintenance, generator use and construction.

Impacts Dust will be the main emission to air during construction and combustion gases will be the main emissions to air during the operation of the helipad. Construction phase Construction of the helipad will generate dust and air emissions for the following sources:   

Construction vehicles and generators used on site through the combustion of fossil fuels. Transportation of materials to and from the construction site Site preparation and excavation, including the construction of access roads around the helipad Operational Phase

Operation of the helipad will or have the potential to emit emissions through:       

The combustion of fossil fuels such as helicopters, general vehicles and operational vehicles Refuelling or risk of leakage (See risks) Spray Painting Cleaning Machining Mechanical maintenance Generator use

Risks Leopold Matrixes have been used to analyse the potential impacts of the proposed infrastructure. Actions represent infrastructure and developments that are to be built and used. Characteristics represent elements of the developments that will have an impact on the physical environment. Cells left blank are expected to have no impact on the environment. Cells separated with a diagonal line represent magnitude and significance of the impact on a scale of 1-10. Cells shaded in orange are of those cells with magnitude and/or significance of 6 or greater. These cells have been selected as the major impacts that should be monitored and mitigated.

Construction Phase Table 1: Risk Assessment of Impacts during construction

Transportation of materials for the passenger terminal has been selected because it could be expected to require very different materials due to the multi-purpose of the building. Preparation and excavation of the site is a large issue for passenger terminal, outbuildings for storage and for the 80-space carpark and road. This is due to a large amount of land being cleared or developed, causing dust generation. Though the magnitude of these impacts varies, the significance remains constant because size will impact how much dust is generated but development time will not vary considerably between them.

Operation Phase Table 2: Risk Assessment of Impacts during operation

The combustion of fossil fuels and refuelling or risk of leakage is great for the aircraft hangers, fuel and tank outlets, outbuildings and carpark and roads. This is due to the impacts having a high significance as they will be a continuing impact. However, many of these have a low magnitude because the impact will be mostly limited to that location. similarly, leakage of fuel will be limited to vehicle and fuel movements and locations.

Mitigation and Monitoring Construction Phase Combustion of fossil fuels: Mitigation:   

Transportation of materials can be taken in as little trips as possible, to limit carbon emissions emitting Effective building planning to use construction vehicles as least as possible Less vehicle transportation for construction workers

Monitoring: Building site manager should implement procedures to address the above mitigation and reduce overall emissions from combustion of fossil fuels. Dust: Mitigation:    

Access roads on to the construction site should be sealed to avoid dust spreading from vehicles Watering of excavation site when digging or drilling will reduce the dust spread and emissions Under the council building permits, construction must be built within 6 months which would limit the impact If a wall is in place for bordering the helipad site, then walls must be placed first to stop dust spreading

Monitoring: EPA would monitor the air quality around the location when dust is to be expected to spread to see if there are any risks. Operational Phase Combustion of Fossil Fuels Mitigation: No suggestions to mitigate the combustion of fossil fuels because of their dependency on operating the helipad. Monitoring:

EPA will monitor air quality, particularly around times where helicopter operations are taking place to see if the travel has a significant effect on air quality. Refuelling Possibility of leakage (see risks) Mitigation: Fuelling bulk storage tanks must be within:    

15 metres of any sealed building 6 metres of stationary aircraft 15 metres of any exposed public area 5 metres of an unsealed or grassed area

Monitoring: Guideline fuel management documentation should be followed, and processes overseen by the tenant of the helipad site. Spray Painting, Cleaning, Machining, Mechanical maintenance, Generator use Mitigating: All these activities will produce little to no amount of emissions with AAL already having guided documentation to mitigate the emissions. AAL are required to implement these guides into the helipad site. Monitor: Monitoring will be conducted through the tenant’s management to ensure guided documentation is followed....