Introduction
Fugitive dust is a nuisance and a source of air pollution (Datson, Hall and Birch 2012). Anthropogenic sources of fugitive dust include, but are not limited to, construction, industrial and mining activities. These sources are regulated under the National Dust Control Regulations (NDCR) of 2013 (NEMA: AQA 2013).
The purpose of the NDCR is to prescribe general measures for the management and monitoring of dustfall using the American Society for Testing and Materials method D1739:1970 (ASTM D1739: 1970) or equivalent internationally approved method.
Little has been published on the repeatability, uncertainty, accuracy and precision of dustfall monitoring. The aim of this study was to improve the understanding of the uncertainty and the confidence level of dustfall monitoring using the ASTM D1739: 1970 method.
Methods A dustfall monitoring network was established along the perimeter of a lime processing facility in Gauteng and monitored for 12 months. The network consisted of 12 directional dustfall samplers that were modified by removing the rotating lid. Each sampler contained Four buckets (A, B, C and D) with the dimensions 238 mm (height) and 175 mm (diameter). (Figure 1).
The basic premise with the four buckets per stand was to ensure that each bucket would be exposed to the same conditions and for the same period; therefore, should have equal amount of dust deposition. This assumes that dustfall rates for each of the four buckets are not impacted by the close proximity of the four buckets to each other on the stand. This is an untested limitation of this study. The difference in the weight (mg) of the dust recorded from each bucket at each respective site is observed.
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