First sniff of fresher air
Monitoring the air quality - live data from stations located at various points within the City are constantly monitored
Public complaints of Mondi’s malodorous emissions over the past few years in Richards Bay have not fallen on deaf ears.
Mondi Richards Bay Mill has introduced new measures to curb the problem.
At the company’s Environmental Open Day on Thursday, the first phase of the Odour Abatement Project - at a cost of R67-million - was unpacked to various stakeholders.
Launched in April, the project has since seen, among others, the installation of carbon filters,
an upgrade of the secondary condensate system, emission inventory and ambient monitoring systems.
According to Mondi Group Environmental Manager, Gladys Naylor, tests conducted after commissioning of the carbon filters have shown 98 - 99% efficiency. ‘Mondi is committed to achieve compliance with the World Health Organisation’s odour annoyance threshold. ‘We respond to all complaints within 24 hours and work very closely with the Richards Bay Clean Air Association,’ said Naylor.
Odour
Live data from the monitoring stations located at various points within the City are checked for exceedances, investigated and reported to relevant departments, who then troubleshoot the causes.
Since the inception of the system, representatives from the City of uMhlathuze noted a decrease in the number of complaints logged via the municipality.
Meteorological
Managing Director Bob Hunt said meteorological conditions also contributed to gases being trapped at ground level, particularly during winter when inversion layers reduced the dispersion of the gases. ‘Around May-June, the air is very still and with this climatic condition and inversion level, odour complaints do increase. ‘But, the plan is always to minimise emission and we are committed to improving our environmental performance and sustainable footprint.
In addition, the company has focused hugely on energy savings projects in the form of gas turbines to improve their own power generation capacity and reduce coal consumption and CO2 and SO2 emissions into the local atmosphere.
