Windblown fugitive dust emissions from smelter slag

The waste products of mining and smelter operations contain fine particles that, when stored in stockpiles and tailings ponds, are subject to aerodynamic forces that may result in their suspension and transport within boundary layer air flows. The accuracy of atmospheric dispersion models such as AERMOD depends strongly upon suitable inputs for the emission rate that generally must be either measured or estimated from suitable analogues. Measurements of the emission rate of PM10 from smelter slag, based on wind tunnel experiments using the control volume method, are reported in this study and compared with vertical flux values obtained using a finite difference approximation. As compared to natural soils, the dust coatings on slag fragments are rapidly depleted during wind events so that the temporal aspect is important to capture in any consideration of the emission rate. At low wind speeds, vertical flux measurements underestimate the emission rate, but otherwise the agreement is excellent. Comparison with field measurements obtained at the smelter site reveals a degree of overlap with the laboratory data. As a general rule, PM10 emission from smelter slag by aerodynamic entrainment alone is several orders of magnitude lower than published fluxes of total suspended particulate (TSP) emitted from natural soil surfaces for which saltation bombardment is recognized to play a key role in the ejection of dust.