In conjunction with the Tourism & Arts Centre, the Smelter has been conducting weekly tours of the Smelter for a number of years. The tours provide participants with a broad overview of the Smelter and its operations as well as a comprehensive understanding of the tenby10 project, the many initiatives undertaken on site to reduce emissions and progress to date toward the tenby10 goal. Regardless of whether you're a long time resident of the community, a tourist or even a relative of a current employee, if you're interested in learning more about either the Smelter or the tenby10 project then come along and take the tour.

Tours are conducted every Monday, Wednesday and Friday and depart from the Tourism & Arts Centre. For further details or to make a booking, contact the Tourism & Arts Centre on (08) 8633 8700 or Freecall 1800 000 424.

Click here to visit the Port Pirie Smelter Photo Gallery

Establishing vegetation around the site has been crucial in reducing lead dust movement with more than 250,000 trees, shrubs and saltbushes planted to date. Recycled water, which comes from the site's sewerage plant, is used to water the vegetation with the watering undertaken between 12.30am and 3.00am to minimise evaporation. Red gum trees have also been planted on site after they were recognised as growing successfully around the city.

Trials of the plant Arundo donax, which is a fast growing giant reed, have also been undertaken. The giant reed is a perennial rhizomatous grass that can grow up to eight metres tall and can reach a couple of metres in only a few months. As it forms thick stable clumps it has the ability to act as a windbreak and therefore is been planted near those areas of the site that are susceptible to increased dust movement.

A tenby10 analyst uses wind roses to understand Port Pirie's daily, weekly, monthly and annual weather patterns. The diagram shows a typical wind rose pattern for July. When this data is compared with data obtained from the dust monitors, some interesting facts can be seen.

• High Lead in Air results in Port Pirie are strongly influenced by north-west to north-east winds.
• The strong north/north-west winds blow through the site, pick up emissions and lead dust and deposit them predominantly in the south and south-east areas of Port Pirie.
• The strongest north/north-west winds are most prevalent in winter leading to higher Lead in Air results in this season.
• The highest proportion of children with elevated blood lead levels reside south or south-east of the Smelter.

There is a big difference in both wind direction and wind speed between day and night.

Highly sensitive dust monitors have been installed in the community to provide a constant and accurate stream of data that can be used to improve dust and emission control. These monitors form part of a wider monitoring network with equipment owned by the Department of Health.

There are currently 12 High Volume Air Samplers positioned in the Port Pirie community with two more soon to be installed. These stations run 24 hours a day to monitor the amount of lead dust in the air, providing a much better understanding of the issue which allows the site to progressively implement different actions to reduce the problem.

To date, initiatives have included:

• Planting wind breaks in critical areas
• Stopping operations when wind speeds increase
• Doing more operations in the morning because wind generally increases during the day

Additionally, several cameras and a computer system that continuously monitor lead dust have been installed to enable a quicker response when emissions do occur, thereby reducing the negative impact on the community. The use of digital video recorders also enables emissions to be reviewed after the fact to reduce similar emissions in the future.

Numerous policies regarding personal hygiene are in place at the Smelter and these have played a significant role in lowering employee lead levels as well as drastically reducing take home lead. These include:

• Make sure that you shower and wash your hair before leaving work.
• Ensure that you remove all contaminated work clothing and footwear and change into civvies clothing before leaving the Smelter.
• Do not wear personal undergarments beneath your work clothing. Make sure you use t-shirts, shorts and socks supplied by the Smelter which are laundered on site along with other work clothing.
• Do not come into physical contact with children whilst wearing contaminated work clothing.
• Ensure that you use the supplied barrier cream to minimise any lead containing dirt getting ingrained into hands.
• Do not enter your vehicle whilst wearing contaminated work clothing.
• Always change out of work clothing before entering a family car.
• Keep your work vehicle separate from your family life. Do not allow children access to work vehicles and certainly do not use this vehicle to transport children.

Where possible, family cars that carry children and prams should not be used for getting to and from work as this is a possible source of contamination for young children.

The Australian standard for lead in blood in the workplace is 50 µg/dL, however, over the past few years the Smelter has been actively working to ensure all workers had a blood lead level of less than 32 µg/dL. All employees and contractors are required to undertake regular blood tests to monitor levels to ensure theses standards are met.

Due to efforts on site, the Smelter is currently experiencing its lowest employee and contractor lead levels on record. As of the end of 2008, just 29 employees and contractors recorded levels over 30 µg/dL. Compared with previous years, this is a very encouraging result and well above expectation. In 2007, 37 employees and contractors had levels above 30 µg/dL, whereas in 2006 the figure was 113 and in 2005, it was as high as 171. In a workforce of 785 people, these results are outstanding.

Maintaining a clean, dust-free environment on site is a vital step towards reducing the amount of lead dust that could find its way into the community. Numerous policies are in place to limit the amount of lead dust that leaves the site and improvements to these systems are continuously being sought.

The Smelter workforce is represented by the tenby10 ambassadors group who are committed to supporting idea generation and culture change on site. This group encourages 'shop floor' involvement in tenby10, act as conduits to employees for their ideas as well as being general ambassadors for the project. Through this group, a number of changes have been made to site procedures that support the goal of tenby10.

Current policies to ensure site cleanliness include:

-          Wind control

A paper product made at the Smelter is proving highly successful in preventing lead dust from blowing off the site. The thin layers of papier mache, which are constantly being sprayed over stock piles around the site, are proving to be effective in minimising any possible movement by wind. The papier mache is in the form of a light spray and is made by mixing 50 kilograms of paper to 15,000 litres of water. 25,000 litres are made per day which when sprayed on the stock material, dries hard leaving a fine, white film on top. To help contain any on site lead dust, hessian wind breaks are also placed onto the fences at the boundary of the site.

-          Vehicle wash bay

All vehicles entering and leaving the site must pass through a vehicle wash bay to stop vehicles from taking any lead dust off site. Some on site vehicles are also provided with disposable floor mats and seat covers to prevent lead dust from being caught on the material inside the vehicle.

New water vehicles help snuff out dust

Dust busting on site was given a boost by new BIS water trucks in late 2007, which has been helping to hose down fugitive emission hot spots ever since. Water trucks have been spraying down dust on site since December 05. The trucks have a side spray coverage of 12m, which gives wall-to-wall coverage when they are spraying roads on site.

 

Fog Cannon

Similar to a mini water truck, the BIS Fog Cannon is capable of spraying a jet of water over a distance of 100m at a rate of 116L/min. It can also rotate 180 degrees -and therefore it can spray in more than one direction and follow the direction of dust-carrying wind. For instance, it can be used when raw material is being shifted by the mobile crusher in the Pit to keep dust movement to a minimum and is regularly used when handling lead bearing materials.

Upgrading and cleaning roads

Road conditions are important as it is more difficult to extract any lead dust from uneven surfaces and as a result, much bituminising has taken place to upgrade road surfaces around the site. Different vacuum cleaner trials have also been undertaken to find the best device for cleaning the roads, leading to a policy of vacuuming on a dry surface which was proven to be the most effective as wetted down dust stays inside the cracks.

Unsealed roads on site have been covered with Dustex, a dust suppressant agent which binds individual dust particles. Dustex is non-toxic to humans, animals and plants and is commonly used on unsealed roads across Australia.

Audits

An auditing system was introduced to ensure cleanliness policies are effective and that no areas of the site are overlooked. An auditor is assigned to regularly check on areas around the site and classify them as being acceptable or unacceptable. When an area is deemed unacceptable, it is cleaned immediately.

Overbags

Introducing the use of overbags has been a great initiative to assist in reducing take home dust. Overbags are provided to employees and contractor in which to place their own bags while on site. The overbag always stays on site and is washed as required.

To support the tenby10 goal, a number of capital projects have been undertaken on site to reduce lead dust emissions and wind borne dust.

-          Enclosure of the Blast Furnace

Enclosing the Blast Furnace was a vital step on the way to achieving tenby10 as emissions from the furnace were significant. This project began in July 2006 and was completed in August 2007 at a cost of $9.5 million. The key component of the work was the installation of the baghouse which acts like a huge vacuum cleaner, capturing fume before it enters the environment.

-          Slag Fumer projects

One of the major projects in the Slag Fumer has been to make maximum use of available gas handling systems and removing sources of instability in the process that can give rise to emissions.

-          Coal injection system replacement

This project commenced in July 2006 and was completed in September 2007 at a cost of $6.75 million. The new system enables drafting or capture of process gases and therefore reduces emissions.