Mild-mannered mining managers tense up when they have to drive through mud dragged off a construction site. The aggravating question persists: "If the delivery trucks can't drag plant mud out on the street, why should construction sites get a free pass?" The answer is the one you hated from your mother: "You aren't the other kids!"

Responsibility is a heavy burden. However, responsible managements score higher on the green scale. If there is no mud and dust on the street, then the mud and dust are under better control inside the plant.

Looking back

At a big company back in 1970-75, there was serious agony for several successive budget cycles about the capital dedicated to water trucks. Water sprayed adequately and evenly (enough to be effective without puddles) was delightfully effective and kept turning out to be economical. Incidentally, grading to eliminate the puddles improved the plant roads.

The benefit was that the employees, bird one, and the neighbors, bird two, both experienced much less dust contamination. Controlled dust is not getting into employees' eyes and lungs. Never mind that the farmer plowing his adjoining fields was generating more dust than the plant. (You aren't the other kids.)

Another positive two-bird effort that proved effective was housekeeping in cabs of mobile equipment. With the significantly increased number of sound-insulated, air-conditioned cabs with more effective door and window seals, mud turned into dust. The dust often was recirculated inside the cab, overexposing operators to repairable dust. Effective housekeeping keeps trash out of the cabs, reduces dust exposures and makes the operator more comfortable. Could comfort be a third unrecognized productive bird?

Citing cement

An example from the cement industry was more involved but still effective. The controlled incorporation of stack dust into marketable product was useful and progressive. The cement plants had to take tons of dust out of the gas stream of the clinker burning process.

For years most of that dust was accumulated in toxic piles. For various reasons it became prudent and economical to reintroduce significant quantities of dust into the marketable product. "Stone one" was reduced toxic waste piles and "stone two" was less raw material, mined and purchased, to go into the finished product. "Stone three" was some energy savings because the dust was partly processed when it was reintroduced into the product.

Times of change

Granted, that outside pressure, either governmental or social, may have been the impetus for these changes. The changes in these cases turned out to be improvements. Green is not free. Urban recycling of various papers and plastic costs money, and when aluminum cans are high graded out of the mix the cost-benefit balance is worse. Green has to be incorporated early in a plan.

At capital budget time it was interesting to watch what happened to "obvious solutions." Any capital request had to include three alternatives. Requests at the idea stage started out with the obvious and preferred solution (naturally there was no other). Sometimes the obvious one was emphatically defended with job-jeopardizing enthusiasm.

The second and third enforced alternatives, at the idea stage, often had a touch of the absurd. But the polished capital request often showed improvement from the time spent flirting with the absurd.

Green in our industries becomes rational when it is incorporated early in the plan. The vegetation-enhanced berm between the highway and the plant is most successful if it incorporates the stripping at the beginning of plant development. The attractive landscaping can occupy the eye of bypassers, and the citizenry never notices that the plant needs fresh earth tone paint. It is no secret that green succeeds best when a heavy dose of public-spirited action is seasoned with unvarnished self-interest.

Carl R. Metzgar, CSP, has more than 30 years of safety and health experience in the pit and quarry industries. He was formerly a safety and health director for Lone Star Industries, and Mideast Division safety director for Vulcan Materials. He currently offers consulting services with a specialization in program evaluation, training, compliance and loss control. Based in Winston-Salem, N.C., he can be reached at 336-766-8264; Fax: 336-766-1218; E-mail: cmetz46840@aol.com
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