Environmental monitoring

Comprehensive monitoring of landfills - during all phases of their operational life-cycle- pre-operational, operational and post-operational

1. Tests of physicochemical properties of municipal, industrial, mining and combustion waste:

• determination of environmentally-friendly waste usage and management including use in:
  • underground mining excavations,
  • rehabilitation and levelling of degraded sites,
  • fertilising soil and stabilising land,
  • building, road construction, building and the binding material industry,
  • usage in the power industry as alternative fuels.

Tests are carried out on the basis of the applicable legislation, especially
including acts on waste, on repairing damage to the environment, on extractive waste; and implementing rules related to those acts.

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2.Tests on hazardous waste, classification to hazardous or non-hazardous waste codes:

• tests on waste, paying special attention to carcinogenic, mutagenic, teratogenic, harmful, irritant, corrosive, toxic and eco-toxic properties

The results obtained from the tests confirm that hazardous waste has properties
for which they are placed on the list of hazardous wastes, or they can be  reclassified to non-hazardous waste.

The tests are carried out in accordance with the applicable legal regulations.

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Comprehensive monitoring of water and sewage

1. Monitoring of physicochemical and bacteriological properties:

• of industrial, municipal and other sewage discharged into waters and into the ground,
• of landfill leachate.

2. Monitoring of physicochemical and bacteriological properties:

• of waters intended for human consumption and for farming purposes,
• of waters in bathing areas,
• of natural therapeutic waters, mineral and spring waters (from intakes and bottled),

Decision No 5 WZ-OZU-521-12319-4/GR/07 of the Minister of Health dated 11 December 2007, gave the Central Mining Institute the right to issue certificates to confirm the therapeutic properties of natural therapeutic water resources on the basis of the execution of the following tests:

• of surface and groundwaters,
• of mining waters.

3. Monitoring of physicochemical and bacteriological properties:

• of industrial, table and therapeutic salt,
• of chemical reagents,
• of other substances and materials.

The scope of monitoring includes:

• measurements of the intensity of water flows in surface courses, measurements of the level of the saturation boundary of groundwater, groundwater and surface water sampling in order to perform physicochemical tests, sewage sampling in order to perform physicochemical tests, field measurements;
• tests on the physicochemical composition of water and sewage (more than 100 physicochemical parameters, including: cations and anions, heavy metals, physical indicators, organic compounds);
• microbiological tests of water and sewage;
• radiochemical tests of waters and sewage.

Tests on the composition of water and sewage are necessary to determine their quality and suitability for economic, environmental and social purposes, including recreation and sports, as well as for the proper assessment of the impact of toxic substances on the environment.

The works are carried out in accordance with the relevant legislation relating to water and sewage management, in which limits for contaminant levels in waters and sewage have been established, ensuring consumer safety, good functioning and the safety of economic installations, as well as the protection of the environment against the adverse effects of sewage and leachate.

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Monitoring of environmental conditions in degraded post-industrial areas, including post-mining areas - comprehensive tests of soil quality and ground quality - in accordance with applicable standards

• assessment of soil and ground pollution,
• determination of the content of metals and cyanides, as well as aliphatic hydrocarbons in the C12-C35 range, aromatic hydrocarbons derived from benzene (BTX), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), chlorinated hydrocarbons (among others PCB), pesticides (organochlorine pesticides and other non-chlorine compounds), as well as other organic pollutants.

Execution of such environmental tests facilitates assessment of the degree of soil and ground pollution in the area, in accordance with the applicable Regulation of the Minister of the Environment on soil quality standards and ground quality standards. In the pre-investment stage, it is also possible to determine the so-called "zero state" for the pollution of soil and ground environment. This information provides the basis for making decisions concerning further use of the area or its rehabilitation.

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Monitoring of radioactive air contamination

The scope of the monitoring includes:

• determination of the alpha-radioactive isotope concentrations in the air,
• contamination caused by the deliberate dispersal of radioactive substances in the environment
• determination of the mixing layer depth.

Tests of the grain size distribution of aerosols include:

• measurement of grain size distributions in the 3 nm-20 000 nm range via several hundred measurement channels.

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Geo-physical monitoring

• determination of range and monitoring of pollution aureole in grounds and groundwater in the areas of landfill sites and in the areas of ecological disasters,
• assessment and monitoring of processes of injection of chemical and waste media into the rock,
• assessment and monitoring of geo-mechanical hazards to surface stability in mining and post-mining areas, the occurrence of karst phenomena and land mass movements,
• specification of the fire status of landfill sites from coal production for the needs of their rehabilitation,
• determination of suitability for development of liquidated mine areas, tests of the current rock mass state with geological and geophysical methods, investment hazard assessment and design of works enabling the development of the areas of former mining activities.

In each of the above mentioned tasks performed using the geophysical methods complex (electrical, seismic, ground-penetrating radar, gravimetry) we offer measurement, study, design, and documentation works. We have modern measuring apparatus and specialised software.

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Seismometric and micro-seismologic monitoring

• design and production of apparatus for the assessment of the impact of vibrations on the surface infrastructure
• design and production of apparatus for the analysis of micro-tremors from hydro-fracturing processes, storage of carbon dioxide and the extraction of useful minerals
• analysis of micro-seismicity induced by mining activity, hydro-fracturing processes and storage of carbon dioxide
• analysis of the process of micro-fracture propagation with methods of micro-seismological data analysis
• assessment of rock mass condition with the passive tomography method using induced micro-seismicity
• monitoring of micro-seismic occurrences for coal gasification processes

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Vibroacoustic monitoring, noise and vibration measurements in the environment

• tests on the exposure of large areas to traffic and/or industry noise effects,
• development of acoustic maps on copies of the maps that are part of the national geodetic surveying and cartographic resources, which are the source of data used for the purpose of:
  • processing of data for the national environment monitoring,
  • creating and updating programs for the protection of the environment against noise,
  • informing the public about noise hazards to the environment,
• implementation of the OOS of industrial facilities, routes, public utility facilities and others in terms of vibroacoustic hazards,
• development of acoustic forecasts for investments and modernized facilities in the various stages of implementation,
• tests on the effectiveness of noise barriers in the in-situ conditions,
• tests on the impact, on people staying in residential buildings, public buildings and others, of noise coming from sources located in these buildings as well as outside them,
• tests on the impact, of mechanical vibrations, transmitted by the ground, on the construction of buildings and structures as well as people residing in buildings.

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Gas and geotechnical monitoring on embankments of landfills for other than hazardous and harmless waste

• monitoring of biogas emission,
• geotechnical monitoring in terms of morphology and stability of embankments in landfills for other than hazardous and harmless waste (in accordance with the industry standard BN 87/9103-03 "Disposal of municipal waste. Collection, storage and transmission as well as preliminary preparation of test samples").

The aim of these measurements and tests is to assess the state of the operated landfill in accordance with the Regulation of the Minister of Environment of 9 December 2002.

The measurements are taken by a portable device enabling immediate determination of the biogas emission state.

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Dust Monitoring

1. Study on industrial dust explosion

• Determination of flammability and explosion parameters of dust (a full set of standard parameters of flammability and explosion):

  • dust explosion test according to VDI 2263,
  • explosion characteristics including: the maximum explosion pressure p_max and the explosion indicator K_{st max,}
  • lower explosive limit LEL,
  •  minimum ignition temperature of dust cloud T_CL,
  •  minimum ignition temperature of dust layer T_5mm,
  •  minimum ignition energy of dust cloud MIE,
  • determination of tendency to dust accumulations to spontaneous ignition SIT,
  • oxygen concentration limiting the explosion LOC,
  •  resistivity of the dust layer  ρ,

2. Assessment of the dust explosion hazard in industrial plants:

• for working installations (Directive 1999/92/EC ATEX 137),
• on the basis of the installation project (Directive 1999/92/EC ATEX 137),
• for devices intended for use in atmospheres of potential dust explosion (Directive 94/9/EC ATEX 95)

3. Tests on devices as part of the certification process (Directive 94/9/EC ATEX 95);

4. Tests and analysis of dust exposure and hazard in the working environment:

• Measurements in the working environment:

  • individual dosimetry of exposure to dust,
  • assessment of hazard related to dust harmful for health,
  • quantitative and qualitative analysis of respirable fibres of asbestos in the air and in the working environment,

• Laboratory analyses:

  • quantitative analysis of respirable fibres in the air,
  • grain size distribution of dust collected from the air on a membrane filter,
  • fractional analysis of dust formed after coal dust explosion (cokes).

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Badania produktów rolno-spożywczych - pieczywa, cukru, mas jajecznych, mleka, przetworów rybnych, mlecznych i mięsnych, soków, kawy, herbaty, przypraw, wyrobów cukierniczych i innych -  w aspekcie ich skażenia

• badania i ocena potencjalnego skażenia artykułów metalami ciężkimi,
• określenie zawartości  popiołu, wilgoci, soli, tłuszczu.

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Hydrogeologiczne badania monitoringowe dla określania warunków i wpływu działalności górniczej i przemysłowej na środowisko

• Ocena warunków hydrodynamicznych na podstawie pomiarów monitoringowych położenia zwierciadła wód powierzchniowych i podziemnych.
• Pomiary natężenia przepływów wody w ciekach powierzchniowych, batymetryczne pomiary zbiorników powierzchniowych oraz pobór próbek wód podziemnych i powierzchniowych do badań fizyko-chemicznych.
• Ocena i monitoring stanu i źródeł zagrożeń wodnych w podziemnych zakładach górniczych.
• Ocena i monitoring wpływu działalności górniczej na jakość i zasoby wód podziemnych.
• Ocena stanu bezpieczeństwa szybów górniczych i dobór sposobów ich likwidacji w warunkach zagrożenia wodnego.
• Ocena możliwości prowadzenia robót górniczych w warunkach zagrożenia wodnego oraz dobór metod profilaktyki i metod jego zwalczania.
• Badania modelowe filtracji wód ze źródła zagrożenia do obszaru zagrożonego z weryfikacją pomiarami.
• Badania modelowe i prognozowanie procesów zatapiania kopalń wraz z ich weryfikacją pomiarami.
• Opracowywanie projektów monitoringu hydrogeologicznego i optymalizacja sieci monitoringowej.

Prace są wykonywane przez doświadczoną kadrę z respektowaniem zasad zrównoważonego rozwoju, bezpieczeństwa górniczego i środowiskowego oraz z doborem najlepszych praktyk i najnowocześniejszych metod badawczych oraz środków technicznych do ich realizacji.

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