air pollution could be cumulative were identified
through the delineation of air quality impact zones.
The air quality impact zones were calculated
based on the approach explained previously and are
presented for all four mines in Table 8. The impact
zones were delineated using the buffering capability
of GIS software and overlaid on the receptor map as
shown in Figure 3. As seen from the figure, of the 22
villages within the study area, 21 lie within the air
quality impact zone of the JL mine, while 19 fall
within the impact zones of all the mines, that is, the
cumulative air quality impact zone. Since the
boundaries of the impact zones are only approximate
these should serve only as rough estimates.
Although all these villages may be potentially subjected
to cumulative impacts, in practice, the level
of impacts may not be significant for villages lying
in the upwind directions. However, no significant Table
7. Questionnaire checklist for identification of
environmental impacts of JL mine and cumulative
impacts prominent wind directions could be identified
from the available meteorological data. Hence,
cumulative air quality assessment should be done for
all 19 villages.