Port Hedland (Australia), Integrated Weather and Dust Management

Port Hedland, the world's largest bulk export port, was the focus of the Port Hedland Dust Management Taskforce, which the Western Australian Government established in 2009. The Taskforce produced the Port Hedland Air Quality and Noise Management Plan (2010) and submitted a report to Government in August 2016 (Government of Western Australia, 2017).

Port users work together on dust and noise through the Port Hedland Industries Council (PHIC), whose members include BHP, Fortescue and Pilbara Ports (Port Hedland Industries Council, n.d.). Monitoring and minimizing dust emissions is a key focus for the port authority, Pilbara Ports (Pilbara Ports, n.d.).

Weather monitoring is central to Port Hedland's dust management. Port users established an ambient air quality monitoring network in 2009, and the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation (DWER) assumed responsibility for it on 1 January 2022 (Port Hedland Industries Council, n.d.). DWER operates the network's eight monitoring stations (Pilbara Ports, n.d.). PHIC members use real time operations monitoring and meteorological data, and information from the DWER network, to inform operational decisions and alter on-site activities to minimize dust (Port Hedland Industries Council, n.d.).

The report was released for public comment in 2017, and the State Government released its response in October 2018 (Department of Water and Environmental Regulation, 2021). At its own facilities, Pilbara Ports uses engineering controls such as enclosed conveyor belts, transfer stations, wind barriers and sealed roads, and water sprayers at stackers and stockpiles (Pilbara Ports, 2024).

Live data from the ambient network is published on a public website (Port Hedland Industries Council, n.d.), and Pilbara Ports must investigate and report to DWER any PM10 and metal results that exceed levels in its environmental licences (Pilbara Ports, n.d.).