PANAJI
The Goa State Pollution Control Board has accepted the project study report on “Particulate source apportionment study for air quality in Vasco da Gama, Goa” conducted by Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay which states that coal is not the only main source of air pollution in the port town of Vasco.
The report was taken into consideration by the GSPCB during a special meeting and the same will now be forwarded to the High Court of Bombay at Goa.
Due to activities of dusty cargo handling in the Mormugao Port Trust area, GSPCB had invited a source apportionment study to be conducted at Vasco with the intention of addressing primarily the issue of particulate matter with specific attention to the potential and extent of influence of port activities of coal cargo handling as the source of emissions.
The study which focused on the primary sources of air pollution at Vasco while also measuring the ambient air pollution has found that along with organic carbon particulate matter, vehicular emissions, marine salt aerosol, port-related activities, biomass and solid waste burning and road dust also contributes to the air pollution in Vasco.
While these four main sources contribute 20 to 30 per cent of the particulate matter, coal contributes around 20 to 30 per cent.
The four factors identified from the study were vehicular emissions, road dust, port related activities and biomass burning, and marine aerosols.
From the result of source apportionment study, it was observed that out of the four main sources of particulate matter PM10, coal handling contributes 29 per cent, followed by road dust (26 per cent), marine aerosols (23 per cent) and vehicular emissions (22 per cent).
In case of particulate matter PM 2.5, coal handling contributes about 23 per cent, while marine aerosols contribute 29 per cent, road dust 27 per cent and vehicular emission 21 per cent.
The project spanned across 18 months. The pre-monsoon sampling was carried out in May 2018 and PM10 and PM 2.5 samples were collected on quartz and teflon filters.
The areas were selected to include commercial, residential and mixed source locations as well as Adani and JSW berths at the MPT. The first phase was completed by July 2019 and the sampling campaign was undertaken from November 11 to December 2, 2019. The interim report was submitted on December 1, 2020 and the final report draft was submitted to the GSPCB on August 22, 2021 following which discussions were held with the GSPCB. The final report incorporating expert advice was then submitted on December 11 this year.
The report has been prepared by an 11-member team of the Air Pollution Research Laboratory of IIT-B Environmental Science and Engineering Department headed by Prof Virendra Sethi.
The study was instituted by the GSPCB and was funded by Mormugao Port Trust at a cost of Rs 94.50 lakh in response to allegations of coal pollution from residents of Vasco.
