Site C Crusher Dust Suppression

Improvements to three dust collection systems to reduce airborne silica dust.

Client: Peace River Hydro Partners
Services: Engineering & Design
Location: Fort St. John, British Columbia
Sector: Public Sector

Project details

BC Hydro’s Site C Project, the third dam and hydroelectric generating station on the Peace River in northeast British Columbia, is expected to produce 5,100 gigawatt hours of energy each year for over a century. Peace River Hydro Partners (PRHP) holds the main civil works contract for the project.

CWA was retained by PRHP to reduce airborne silica dust at the Site C Project by improving the three dust collection systems for the rock crushing and conveying equipment.

Solutions

CWA’s scope of work included:

Performing field reviews of the three systems.
Calculating dust flow rates for the crushers.
Calculating variances between the existing dust collectors’ capacities and the recommended capacity.
Preparing a balanced dust collection design for each of the three dust collection systems.
Providing recommendations for improvements in accordance with WorkSafeBC standards and American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) best practices.

Based on these recommendations, CWA prepared the detailed design of the crusher area dust suppression improvements including:

Optimized ducting sizing and routing.
Improvements to the dust hoods/skirt boards for material handling equipment to better capture the dust at the source.
New dust hoods for seven crushers and ten screens.
Specifications for mobile dust collection.
Issued for construction drawings.