POLLUTION

Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into a natural environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or light. Pollutants, the components of pollution, can be either foreign substances/energies or naturally occurring contaminants. Pollution is often classed as point source or nonpoint source pollution. The Blacksmith Institute issues an annual list of the world's worst polluted places. In the 2007 issues the ten top nominees are located in Azerbaijan, China, India, Peru, Russia, Ukraine andZambia.

Types of Pollution
There are many types of pollution that exists; some of them have been covered in the text below: Air Pollution: When the presence of one or more contaminants in the atmosphere is of such quality and duration as it is injurious to human, animal and plant health or welfare, it is termed as Air pollution. Air pollution can lead to health problems and at the same time damage the environment and get property into losses. One of the worst effects of Air pollution is that it has led to thinning of the ozone layer of the atmosphere, which is leading to an adverse climate change that we see today. As urbanization increases, construction work takes shape on a wider scale; illegal dumping and air pollution is a consequence of it. Industries and commercial units evacuate harmful gases in the air and so does the ever increasing traffic. On top of it, dust storms and smoke from accidents like forest or oil refineries fires contribute to air pollution too. Waste and Water pollution: When illegal dumps that are toxic in nature enter lakes, streams, rivers, oceans, and other water bodies, they either get dissolved or lie hovering in water or get deposited on the bed. This results in water pollution deteriorating the quality of the water and affecting our aquatic ecosystems. Lots of industrial units and factories today dump their garbage into streams, lakes and river thus making all these water bodies the final destination of cans, bottles and plastics. Most of todays cleaning products are synthetic detergents and are an extract of the petrochemical industry. These impact the health of all forms of life in the water. Polluted water is a hazard, unsafe and also a poison for drinking, recreation and agriculture. More fatally, unhygienic water destroys water life and diminishes its reproductive ability. Sound Pollution: Any unwanted sound is Noise pollution. However, Man made noises that occur from machines, trains, planes, firecrackers etc are extremely litigious. All these kind of noises affect are mental being, peace, sleep, hearing, communication and our overall mental and physical health. The noise levels are increasing with increasing urbanization and development. Noise from construction work, industries, factories, traffic jams are all leading to noise pollution at uncontrollable levels. Noise pollution is not only a source of irritation, frustration and infuriation but also tightens our arteries and increases the flow

of adrenaline forcing the heart to work faster making one prone to heart attacks and strokes. In extreme circumstances, it may also lead to Neurosis and Nervous breakdown. Chemical Pollution: There are several sources of chemical pollution like sewage and run off from domestic households, discharges from industrial units, accidents and spills at sea, discharges from mining and oil rigs and discharges from agricultural lands and units. Constant pollutants include pesticides, such as DDT, and industrial chemicals, most notably the PCBs. Land Pollution: It is the pollution of the Earths natural land surface by industrial, commercial, domestic and other agricultural activities. Some of the common sources of land pollution are Chemical and Nuclear plants, Industrial factories, Oil refineries, Human sewage, Mining, Littering, debris from construction work and Deforestation. One of the ways to stop land pollution is to recycle almost everything that you can.

AIR POLLUTION & NOISE

Preamble:
To systematically address the air quality impacts of potential projects or activities, it is necessary to be familiar with basic information regarding air pollution. Accordingly, this section includes a definition of air pollution and information on the types and effects of specific air pollutants, along with summary information on air pollution sources. Air Pollution can be defined as the presence in the outdoor atmosphere of one or more contaminants in such quantities and of such duration as may be injurious to human, plant, or animal life, or to materials, or which may unreasonably interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property, or the conduct of business.

Sources of air Pollutants:

Air pollutant sources can be categorized from several perspectives, including the type of source, their frequency of occurrence and spatial distribution, and the types of emissions. Characterization by source type can be delineated as arising from natural sources or from man-made sources. Natural Sources include plant pollens, windblown dust, volcanic eruptions and lightning generated forest fires. Man-made source can include transportation vehicles, industrial processes, power plants, construction activities and military training activities. Source characterization according to number and spatial distribution can include such categories as single or point sources (stationary), area or multiple sources (stationary or mobile) and line sources. Point sources are characteristic of pollutant emissions from industrial process stacks, as well as fuel-combustion facility stacks. Area sources include vehicular traffic, fugitive-dust emissions from resource material stockpiles or construction, or military training activities over large geographical areas.

Effects of Air Pollutants:

Air pollution effects may also be divided into several categories, with such effects encompassing those that are health-related as well as those associated with damage to materials or which cause decreases in atmospheric aesthetic features. Examples of effects on human health include eye irritation, headaches and aggravation of respiratory difficulties. Plants and crops have been subjected to undesirable consequences of air pollution, including abnormal growth patterns, leaf discoloration or spotting and death. Property damage include property devaluation because of odors, deterioration of materials such as concrete statutory, discoloration of painted surfaces. The aesthetic effects include reductions in visibility, discoloration of air, photochemical smog- related traffic disruptions at airports and the general nuisance aspects of odors and duct.

Identification of The Types and Quantities of Air Pollutants and of Their Impacts:
An appropriate initial step when analyzing any proposed project activity is to consider what types of air pollutants might be emitted during construction or operational phases of the proposed project activity, and the quantities in which such air pollutants are expected to occur. Use of emission-factor information organized according to project type or activity is a suggested approach. An emission factor is the average rate at which a pollutant is released into the atmosphere as a result of some activity, such as combustion or industrial production, divided by the level of that activity (U.S.EPA, 1973). Emission factors relate the type and quantities of pollutants emitted to indicators such as production capacity, quantity of fuel burned, or vehicle miles traveled by an automobile.

Description of Existing Air Quality Conditions:

Existing air quality conditions can be described in terms of ambient air quality data, emission inventories and meteorological information, which relates to atmospheric dispersion. For a quick assessment and prediction of any air quality survey study data on immediate atmospheric environment, meteorological details such as temperature, humidity, wind speed and directions are very essential, since they play an important role in transport, dilution and dispersion of air pollutants.

Frequency and Method of Air Quality Measurements:

The present study of air quality measurement in terms air pollution concentration has been obtained by continuous monitoring for a period of eight hours at all directions and at the proposed project site. The annual mean wind direction pattern has been compiled from the long-term data made available from meteorological department. The sampling directions around the project site has been selected so as to reflect the impact of anthropogenic activities such as emissions from transportation, generation of dust with movement of vehicles, emissions from industrial and domestic activities. Considering the facilities and significant impact on air quality we have selected Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM), Sulphur dioxide (SO2), Nitrogen Oxides (Nox) and Carbon monoxide (CO).

OBSERVTION OF AIR POLLUTANTS AT THE PROJECT SITE Date Direction Observation of Parameters

SO2 25.11.2005 Core Site 26.11.2005 North 28.11.2005 South 29.11.2005 East 01.12.2005 West 03.12.2005 North East 04.12.2005 North West 06.12.2005 South East 08.12.2005 South West 17.12.2005 Core site 1.8 2.2 2.1 2.5 1.9 2.0 2.4 1.8 2.9 2.7

NOx 4.5 4.8 5.1 6.2 6.7 5.4 5.5 3.8 4.9 4.8

SPM 43 21 32 28 35 23 27 36 38 40

CO 62 53 45 71 77 68 57 49 55 73

OBSERVED LEVEL OF POLLUTANTS AROUND THE SITE Date 09.12.200 5 11.12.205 12.12.200 5 14.12.200 5 Location Ariyur SO2 6.1 Parameters NOx SPM CO 12.6 62 650 12.7 10.5 9.8 84 33 21 678 284 198

Vadamangalam 7.9 Koodapakkam Uruvaiyar 3.7 3.0

METEOROLOGY Effect of pollution on receptors, animate and inanimate depends on atmospheric conditions. Therefore knowledge of meteorological characteristics in a study area is important. Wind speed and wind direction are called primary meteorological parameters because the dispersion and dilution of the pollutants depends mainly on these. Wind speed determines the rate of dilution and travel time of air pollutant. Travel time is the time required by the pollutant to reach a given receptor. Wind direction is important in air pollution problems since it determine the direction of transport of air pollutants. The mean wind direction over a period of time will identify the receptors which will be affected by a particular source during that time period. In other words, the mean wind direction will be indicative of the direction of travel of the pollutant.Wind rose are the diagramtics representation of wind speed and wind direction for quick understands. The windrose are drawn on the basis of three hourly data collected by the meteorological office.

METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS Annual Climatological Data For Villianur Year Temperature Relative Humidity 20 pm 77 79.7 72.9 73.4 75.3 77.1 77.8 78.4 76.9 76.8 76.4 916 990 845 1902 1182 1986 684 1223 962 1103 1392 Rainfall

Maximum Minimum 8 am 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 35.1 34 33 32.3 32.2 32.4 32.6 33.3 32.8 31.9 32.9 23.4 22.5 24.4 24.4 24.3 24.3 24.8 25 25 24.5 24.7 77.2 76.9 73.3 76.3 79.1 80.8 79.2 78.3 80.3 78.9 80.3

Month-wise Climatological Data For Villianur Month Temperature Relative Humidity 20 pm 80 79 78 73 74 70 75 78 74 77 80 79 5.7 6.2 6.6 6.2 8.8 7.6 7.5 6 4.9 5.2 5.2 8.6 Mean wind speed

Maximum Minimum 8 am January February March April May June July August September October November December 29.3 31 22.2 33.8 34.8 37.4 35.4 33.6 34.4 31.6 30.7 30.3 21.9 23 25.1 26.9 26.3 26.7 25.4 25.7 24.1 24 24 22.8 88 82 79 75 77 80 77 79 79 81 83 84

PRESCRIBED STANDARDS Parameter s Standards (g/cu.m) Residential Sensitive Industrial / Area commercial

S.No

1 2 3 4

SO2 NOx SPM CO

500 200 100 10000

120 80 30 4000

120 80 30 2000

Ambient air quality monitoring refers to appropriate sampling and analysis to establish the ambient concentrations of specific pollutants. Targeted monitoring might be desirable in order to verify the experienced changes in air quality concentrations for those pollutants determined to be of concern. The primary sources of information on air quality standards, criteria and policies will be the relevant local, state and federal agencies which have a mandate for overseeing the air resources of the geographical area. Documentation of this information will allow the determination of the significance of air quality impacts incurred during projects or activities and will aid in deciding between alternative actions or in assessing the need for mitigating measures for a given alternative. Air quality impact prediction can be based on several approaches including massbalances, the use of mathematical models and other considerations. Air pollutant emissions from the construction or operational phase of a project activity can be considered in relation to the existing emission inventory for the study area. Particular attention should be given to releases of air toxics and the resultant comparison of maximum ground level concentrations to appropriate ambient air quality guidelines or standards. In conjunction with these analyses, it is important to identify prevention, control and mitigation measures for releases of air toxics. This chapter address potential air quality impacts identified for the project activity, the existing characteristics of the air environment, the emission inventory and meteorological characteristics of the study area, the applicable air quality standards and regulations, the quantification of the anticipated air impacts due to the activity and the rationale impacts and mitigation measures.

NOISE
Noise can be defined as unwanted sound or sound in the wrong place at wrong time. It can also be defined as any sound that is undesirable because it interferes with speech and hearing, is intense enough to damage hearing. The definition of noise as unwanted sound implies that it has an adverse effect on human beings and their environment including land, structures and domestic animals. Noise can also disturb natural wildlife and ecological systems. The number of compressions and rarefactions of the air molecules in a unit of time is described as its frequency and is expressed in hertz. Humans can detect sounds with frequencies ranging about 16 to 20,000 Hz. In most noise considerations, the A-weighted-sound level scale is used and the units are weighted decibels (dBA). The weighted sound level or noise level meters have an A-weighting network, thus yielding A-weighted dB or dBA readings. To provide a basis for addressing noise environment impacts, the following methodology is suggested for the planning and conduction of impact studies. 1. The first step is to determine the potential impacts of the proposed project on the noise environment, which requires the identification of the noise levels associated with the project. 2. In analyzing the potential impacts of a project, it is necessary to consider the study area or region of influence associated with the noise emissions. The delineation of a study area can be made based upon the boundaries of the land associated with the project or by also considering the area of noise influence within the vicinity of the project. 3. Predicting the propagation of noise from a source and determining the type of affected land uses with the help of noise standards / policies by the state and federal agencies which have a mandate overseeing the noise environment of the study area.

4. The final step is the assessment of impact significance with the identification and incorporation of mitigation measures. Assessment refers to the interpretation of the significance of anticipated changes related to the proposed project. 5. The important sources of noise presently in the study area are transportation, industry like sugar, detergent etc., The Central Pollution Control Board has notified the standards in respect of noise.

Noise Level Standard Area A Category of Area Industrial Limits in day (dB) 75 Limits in Night 70

B C D

Commercial Residential Silence Zone

65 55 50

55 45 40

The ambient noise level has been monitored at the project site and around the project site at four stations namely, Ariyur, Vadamangalam, Koodapakkam and Uruvaiyaru and the observations are given in the table which indicates that noise level are below the standards prescribed by CPCB.

Sl.No Project site Ariyur Vadamangalam Tiruvandarkoil Uruvaiyaru

Station Project site Ariyur Vadamangalam Tiruvandarkoil Uruvaiyaru

Day (dB) 52 53 55 47 43

Night (dB) 45 48 50 42 41

AIR POLLUTION CONCECUENCES

 holes in the ozone layer in the atmosphere above Antarctica and the Arctic, coupled with growing evidence of global ozone depletion increase the amount of ultraviolet radiation reaching the earth. can lead to skin cancer and cataracts