CONTRIBUTION OF A CEMENT WORKS TO THE AIR POLLUTION SITUATION IN ITS VICINITY

Abstract

To ensure good air quality, very strict air quality limits have been specified by the European Union in the “Air Quality Directive” /1/ and the subsidiary guidelines relating to this /2/. These regulations have by now been adopted into German Law /3/. However, in contrast to the situation in other European countries, German environmental law links the observance of these air quality limits with the approvability of industrial plants. Thus, in Germany approval for the erection and the operation of a plant is normally only granted if the air quality limit values are observed in the vicinity of the plant. In areas where these are exceeded, of which in Germany there are a large number particularly as regards fine dust (PM 10), new approvals for industrial plants in the future are only possible under special conditions. In approval procedures, the observance of the air pollution values has to be demonstrated by ambient air quality measurements. These measurements are as a rule very costly. Also, in order to obtain reliable information, the concentrations of the various atmospheric pollutants must be measured over a long time period – mostly over one year. However, in the air pollution measurements, the contributions of all emitters – industrial firms, road traffic and private households - are included, Figure 1. Differentiation between individual emitters is only rarely possible.