Settling the dust on quarries

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Settling the dust on quarries

Extracted from The Star, 11^th April 2000, BY MENG YEW CHOONG

Quarries? Ugh, ugly things that scar lovely hills and scare away wildlife and pollute the air with dust and our ears with noise and, and … do away with them now!

And if we do, we’d have to do away with new roads, houses, bridges, even some cosmetics and toiletries, for quarries produce material used in manufacturing these and many other products essential to a country in a headlong rush to develop.

Most countries have no choice but to live with this industry. In Malaysia, we can at least take comfort in the fact that quarry operators have greatly cleaned up their act since the bad old days when the industry was largely unregulated.

For instance, back in the 1950s, the explosives used were rather unsafe, admits Edmund Koh, vice chairman of the Malaysia Quarries Association. But technology is constantly evolving, he points out, and now, “we use the same explosives the Americans and Britons use.”

And back then, no proof of competency was required of the people who set off the explosives. Now, under the Perak Quarry Rules (1992), these people – called shot firers – have to be properly trained. They have to take theory classes, undergo practical training at a quarry and, finally, sit for a certification examination conducted by the Mineral and Geoscience Department (formerly the Mines Department).

While not all states are governed by the Perak Quarry Rules, certification is slowly becoming an industry-wide trend, reflecting the overall increase in the level of professionalism within the industry, says Koh.

“Most quarries today employ qualified mining engineers, many of whom – about 70% - are trained either in Britain or Australia, So they are very much exposed to the latest developments elsewhere..”

Technical improvements is good news as they mean that some of quarrying’s environmental consequences are reduced. For instance, shot-firers have perfected the art of controlled blasting to such an extent that quarries can exist in harmony with houses located as near as 400m (as is the case at Simpang Pulai in Perak).

Better explosives and blast techniques also reduce dust created by explosions and the amount of scarring on a hillside.

Note: Ammonia nitrate is often used to accelerate the blasting effect of a quarry. You can visit the store-front of these suppliers by clicking HERE.

Regulating the industry

Government regulation also helps mitigate environmental consequences, of course.

Some regulation of the industry began in 1988 with a requirement for environmental impact assessments (EIAs) for new operations nationwide. Specifically, EIAs are required if there are residential, commercial or industrial areas within a 3km radius of the quarry or if land has been approved or gazetted for such purposes within that distance.

Even if the 3km – radius rule doesn’t apply, operators cannot bypass the DOE’s scrutiny: an EIA may be ordered if the department feels there is justification in doing so, for example, if a stream running through the quarry ends in a catchment area.

A brief canter through the labyrinthine process of getting a quarry operation approved seems to bear out the fact that the industry is becoming increasingly regulated now.

Briefly: the state Executive Council will consider financial and social aspects of a proposal; its approval of these areas is subject to the proposal’s EIA being approved by the DOE and the host of other government departments involved in evaluating EIAs. After that, the hopeful operator has to submit a “quarry scheme” to the Minerals and Geosciences Department, describing in detail all technical aspects of how work will be carried out at the quarry.

Perak Mines Department director Abdul Rahman Mohd Rafek explains that for existing quarries (pre-1988), his department will make operators comply as far as possible with conditions stipulated under EIAs for similar areas.

“With all those layers of approval, it can be as long as five years from the date a proposal is put in for approval until the day rocks are extracted,” says Haji Ghiathuddin Long, chairman of the Malaysia Quarries Association.

And since a quarry has to be approved by so many different government agencies (no less than 12), an “approved” quarry ought not be branded as being totally environmentally destructive, argues Koh.

The industry is governed by, among others, the Forestry Act 1984, the Mining Enactment, the Environment Quality Act 1974, the Factories and Machineries Act 1974, the Factories and Machineries Act 1967, the Occupational Safety and Health Act 1993, and the Explosives Act 1957, just to name some.

In fact, Ghiathuddin asserts that quarries are among the least environmentally-polluting industries now, especially compared to an industry like palm oil milling.

A glance at statistics supplied by the Department of Environment does suggest that quarries are not as irritating as they are commonly thought to be.

In 1994, quarries contributed to 37 instances of public complaints on unsatisfactory air quality. That is 3% of the total number of air quality-related complaints received by the DOE. The percentage has remained essentially unchanged throughout the 1990s.

In 1998, 72% of quarries – 137 of 190 quarries nationwide – complied with the Environmental Quality (Clean Air) Regulations, 1978. This compliance rate is on par with the metal finishing and electroplating industries; the rate exceeds that of the wood-based (68%) and cement (67%) industries. Rice mills have the lowest percentage of compliance at 46%.

In 1994, the industry recorded a 75% compliance with clean air regulations, and a 100% compliance with the Environmental Quality (Sewage and Industrial Effluents) Regulations 1979.

Improper planning the culprit?

Accidents, too, have pushed quarries to improve operations. In the 1988 Gunung Tunggal incident in Perak, a gigantic limestone boulder from a quarry just beside the KL-Ipoh trunk road came crashing down, killing a farmer and causing traffic chaos. That was the incident that spurred the state into enacting the Perak Quarry Rules in 1992.

(Regulation of the industry in Penang, Kedah and Perlis is based on Perak’s standards. In other states, the DOE usually enforces regulations through each state’s Mines Department.)

While the result of that tragedy was good regulations, the incident also reflects one especially problematic aspect of old quarries: their proximity to developments such as highways and residential, commercial and industrial areas.

The sitting of new quarries is relatively carefully regulated now, taking into account such considerations as the ideal 2km buffer zone. But there are may old, still-operational quarries that do have that buffer zone. This problem, however, must be laid at the feet of state authorities rather than quarry operators because, as Koh points out, “we were there first.”

The old quarries were usually located in remote areas to begin with. For example, the Damansara Rock quarry, located near the Sri Damansara development just beside the Damansara-Puchong Expressway, was practically invisible when it began operations in the 1960s.

“Back then, the area was surrounded by jungle, with tigers still roaming around. But now, it is right beside the highway,” says Ghiathuddin.

The same goes for previously “hidden” quarries around Simpang Pulai, Perak. Construction of the North-South Expressway and the Simpang Pulai-Pos Slim road has exposed them to public view – and condemnation.

“The problem is that other developments were approved without due consideration given to the quarries’ existence and the kinds of complaints and protests they would invite in future,” Koh says.

An example of improperly planned development is the housing area that was approved around the APMC cement factory in Rawang, Selangor. “Thirty years ago, people didn’t go to Rawang. Now people are saying the plant should not be there,” laments Ghiathuddin.

With the best will in the world, relocating old quarries is not feasible. For one thing, they obviously have to be where the minerals are. And not just any limestone hill will do either. For example, in manufacturing white cement, the calcium carbonate content of the rock is an important factor in determining the “whiteness” of the final product – thus, limestone which is tainted with too many trace elements like iron or manganese won’t fit the bill.

Other considerations also make relocation unfeasible: the only place on the peninsula where quarries wouldn’t interfere with other developments is inland, far away from “civilisation”. This means that relatively pristine areas will be opened up, which would be unacceptable to conservationists, of course.

Also, the more remote the quarry, the more pollution emitted from transportation required to carry products to end users. And, of course, the higher transportation costs will ultimately be passed on to consumers in the form of costlier end products, a situation which, again, will definitely not be well received.

While no one will speak on the record, it is common knowledge within the industry that some state governments – and Perak was definitely one of them – had, in the past, overruled objections from technical agencies when giving out concessions. One reason could have been that the state receives royalties from the sale of extracted rocks. For instance, between 1995 and 1999, the industry recorded an estimated turnover of RM4bil.

Living with quarries

Quarries have a life of at least 100 years (based on current extraction rates); since the oldest quarries date back to the 1950s, we will have to live with them in our midst for at least another half century.

What of new quarries? While a regulated industry is encouraging, those regulations also mean that new quarrying sites might encroach into forest reserves.

Ghiathuddin explains that because most state land on the peninsula is already developed, future quarries will have to move into more remote areas like forest reserves, which represents a potentially controversial undertaking, to put it mildly.

“What people don’t know is that forest reserves can have up to 30 uses; rock extraction is only one of them,” says Ghiathuddin.

(Other uses of forest reserves include logging, water catchment or wildlife conservation.)

It is a difficult situation, acknowledges Haji Mohd Adnan Mahmod, general manager of G. B. Kuari in Kuala Dipang, Perak: “The country needs housing (which means) it also needs the rocks.”

Rahman also feels that the industry does not deserve all the bad press. “Usually one or two may cause the bad publicity. But without quarrying, there will not be the kind of developments that we see now. Of course, the problem is really about the Not-In-My-Backyard Syndrome.”

Despite improvements in blasting techniques, despite EIAs that require control of dust, noise and vibration, people do not like having a quarry in their backyard. In other words, quarries – or airports or dams or incinerators – are all right, as long as I do not see them.

But people like Adnan genuinely believe that quarrying is a clean industry: “We are a good neighbour, and we are contributing to society and the country,” he says.

Koh echoes his sentiments. “At the end of the day, we are an industry which is directly involved in nation-building.”

Like most environmental issues, It all boils down to where we want to draw the line. We need development, yet we also need to preserve the environment. When do we decide that development is threatening the environment too much?

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