November 2004 (PDF 11.6 MB) - Barrick Gold Corporation

• employing ‘quiet’ practices when operatingequipment—for example, positioning idlingtrucks in appropriate areas• running staff-education programs on theeffects of noise and the use of quiet workpractices.Best available technology economicallyachievable (BATEA)Allied with BMP is ‘best available technologyeconomically achievable’ (BATEA). With BATEA,equipment, plant and machinery that produce noiseincorporate the most advanced and affordabletechnology to minimise noise output. Affordabilityis not necessarily determined by the price of thetechnology alone. Increased productivity may alsoresult from using more advanced equipment,offsetting the initial outlay—for example, ‘quieter’equipment that can be operated over extendedhours. Often old or badly designed equipment canbe a major source of noise.Where BMP fails to achieve the required noisereduction by itself, the BATEA approach shouldthen be considered. Most of the noise-controlmeasures listed in Section 7.7 belong to this approach.Examples of uses of BATEA are:• adjusting reversing alarms on heavyequipment to make them ‘smarter’, bylimiting acoustic range to the immediatedanger area• using equipment with efficient muffler design• using quieter engines, such as electric insteadof internal combustion• using efficient enclosures for noise sources• using vibratory piling in place of impactpiling• using high-pressure hydraulic systems tosplit rock, instead of hydraulic or pneumatichammers• damping or lining metal trays or bins• active noise control.7.3 Controlling noise in transmissionBarriersBarriers are more effective if they are near the sourceor the receiver. Their effectiveness is also determinedby their height, the materials used (absorptive orreflective), and their density. The relationship ofthese design features to attenuation is well documented.Barriers can take a number of forms—includingfree-standing walls along roads, grass or earthmounds or bunds, and trenches or cuttings withinwhich noise sources are sited. They are employedwhen source and receiver control is either impracticalor too costly.Land-use planning—a strategic approachto noise mitigationStrategic issues related to integrating transport andland-use are dealt with in detail in the EnvironmentalCriteria for Road Traffic Noise (EPA 1999).Noise impacts from industry in residential andother noise-sensitive areas stem mostly from inappropriateland-use decisions that allow industry todevelop close to these areas. Once land is developedin this way, the range of available noise-controlmeasures is restricted to better management of theindustrial site, and engineering solutions. One ofthe most costly controls considered at this late stage,the acquisition of residences, creates a noise bufferzoneof land. These conflicts could have beenavoided had appropriate land-use decisions beenmade at the initial stage of land-use planning.While judicious use of land use planning techniquesmay often avoid noise becoming an issue itis not intended that they should be relied on as theonly mitigation strategy. Noise generators areresponsible for applying all feasible and reasonablenoise mitigation controls at the noise source. Thismaximises the amount of land unaffected by noise.Where land-use planning can be applied as a noisecontrol tool (generally in newly developed areas),this is preferred to waiting until a specific noiseimpact is identified before seeking noise controlmeasures.Land-use planning can be used as a noise controlmeasure at three development stages:NSW industrial noise policy39