INTRODUCTION:

The concept of ‘Environmental aspects and their impacts’ is an important term in environmental
management system. The study of environmental aspect describes the relevant issues related to
environment that a management needs to address, irrespective of level of abstraction e.g. waste
management, global warming, resource extraction, lack of knowledge about process emissions, toxic
material management, and biodiversity. Ideally, a list of environmental aspects defines the identified
scope of the responsibility of an environmental management system (EMS). The aspects in the
company’s list are those that the company has identified. So, the priorities given to environmental
aspects by the companies differ as they have different method for identification and evaluation of
environmental aspects. Environmental aspects occur in each manufacturing activities (Including
Metallurgical plants and industries) like emissions to air, releases to water, emission of noise,
deforestation, acid deposition, waste management, use of hazardous substances etc. However, they are
most commonly connected with metallurgical plant. If the criterion of their occurrence is applied in
metallurgical plant one may signify which aspect is more dangerous, which aspect has more probability
to occur, which aspect has more frequency and which aspect getting repetitions? Ones the significant
environmental aspect and their impact gets identified then metallurgical plant have to make plan for
monitoring of these aspects so that their effect can be minimized. The principle impacts of these aspects
are air pollution, water pollution, noise pollution degradation of land, damage to wild life, global
warming, greenhouse effect, ozone layer depletion, decreased land health and productivity etc. Out of
the various aspects arising from metallurgical plant emission to air and releases to water are described
as the most significant causing many severe impacts like air pollution, green house. effect, global
warming, ozone layer depletion, water pollution, decreased land health and productivity, degradation of
land. Emission of noise aspect producing noise pollution occurs from each and every industry to bigger
or smaller extent so this aspect also needs more attention but it is somewhat less harmful for
environment as compared to other. These aspects require immediate attention because it is now well
established that damage to environmental systems and natural resources has assumed massive
proportions and the effects are manifesting themselves in very tangible detrimental forms. So, the
companies have to give more concentrations on various environmental aspects for the welfare of lives
and there is an urgent need for proper management of the environmental aspects arising from
metallurgical plant

Image 1: Plant pollution

VARIOUS ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS AND THEIR IMPACTS:
1. Potential Impacts Discharges to stream OR Emissions to water
Water quality impacts Biodiversity impacts Land health and productivity

2. Emissions to air
Air pollution, Local air quality decreases Climate change Ozone depletion Green house effect

3. Waste management
Acid deposition Water quality impacts Local air quality decreases Degradation of landfills

4. Use of hazardous
substances Local air quality impacts Acid deposition

5. Production of toxic waste

Air pollution Land health and productivity Acid deposition Water quality impacts

6. Noise
Noise pollution Hearing disability impacts

7. Deforestation
Damage to wild life Degradation of land

8. Chemical spills and leaks

Land health and productivity Depletion of non- renewable resources Water quality impacts Biodiversity
impacts

9. Emissions of volatile organic Compounds

Land health and productivity Greenhouse gas emissions Air quality Biodiversity impacts Water quality
impacts

10. Service delivery

Greenhouse gas emissions Air quality impacts Water quality impacts Biodiversity impacts Land health
and productivity.

11. Over consumption of natural resources

Depletion of minerals, raw materials, and energy sources

12. Discharges to stream OR Emissions to water

Water quality impacts Biodiversity impacts Land health and productivity
 13. Emissions to air
Air pollution, Local air quality decreases Climate change Ozone depletion Green house effect

DIRECT ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECT:

These are the aspects over which a plant can be expected to have an influence and control. For example,
emissions from processes OR direct aspects are connected with those activities of the metallurgical
plant which are managed and controlled by the plant management. While defining the direct aspects
one can order them according the places they occur in the plant, i.e. assembly room, dispatch,
storehouses and packing area.

INDIRECT ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECT:

Indirect environmental aspects are those which can occur in combination with actions, products or
services which are not fully controlled and supervised by the plant management. During the
identification of the indirect aspects one can use an interview with contractors, subcontractors and
customers and the analysis of the use of materials, the activities of subcontractors and co-operating
companies in the supply chain. Examples of indirect aspects are leftovers of packaging, most commonly
included into the category of municipal waste by the recipient of the final products. Indirect aspects
arise in the surrounding of the plant and not directly in the plant.

ANALYSIS AND OBSERVATION OF DATA:

It is important to collect all the relevant information and data from all the relevant and historical
analysis of the location before planning the plant location ad give some weightage to the environmental
aspects to select the best alternative according to the analysis. This method is based on weighting
criterion against environmental aspects to determine that which of the environmental aspect is most
significant for metallurgical plant. In this method weights between 0 and 5 are assigned to each
environmental aspect with respect to their relevance to each of the criteria that the environmental
aspect is been weighed against. Environmental aspect that is of great relevance to the criteria is given
the weight 5. Medium relevance is given the weight 3, small relevance is given the weight 1 and no
relevance is given the weight 0. The weights obtained are summed up and multiplied by the quantity of
the environmental aspect to determine which of the environmental aspect is most significant.

OBSERVATION OF COLLECTED DATA:

The most used criteria in the process of the environmental impact assessment are severity, probability,
frequency and duration which are defined as

(a) Severity It is related to the level of the exposition of the environment to the aspects/ impact,
including air, water, soil, natural resources, flora, fauna, humans, etc. Scale of severity (5-very
dangerous, must be repaired, 4- serious, hard to repair, 3-moderate, could be repaired, 2-minor effects
that are easily remedied 1-harmless, negligible impact)

(b) Probability It is used as the indicator of the possibility of something to happen.

Scale of probability (5- almost certain, 4-likely, 3-possible, 2-rare, 1-almost incredible)

(c) Frequency

It describes how often some aspects/impacts could occur in the environment of an organization.

Scale of frequency (5-continuous – more than 3 times per week, 4-very often, 1-2 times per week, 3-
regular – it happens once a month, 2 intermittent – 3 to 4 times per year, 1-rare less than one time a
year)

(d) Duration It describes the number of times some aspect/impact occurred during the investigation.
Quantities of total environmental aspect represented by K which is 10,

Table 1 Significance Assessment of Ten Different Aspects Using Four Criteria

Aspects Severity( A) Probability(B) Frequency(C) Duration(D) Total Sum

/Impacts
Water 4 4 4 3 150
pollution
Damage to 3 2 2 2 90
wild life
Local air 5 4 4 4 170
quality
Climate 4 3 3 4 140
change
Acid 5 2 1 1 90
deposition
Ozone 4 2 2 4 120
depletion
Use of 3 2 1 1 70
hazardous
substance
Production of 4 3 2 1 100
toxic waste
Noise 2 4 5 5 160
pollution
Degradation 3 2 2 3 100
of land

In the above table 3 water pollution impact arise due to emission of waste water, damage to wild life
arise due to deforestation, local air quality affected by emission to air and emission of waste water.
Climate change arises due to emission to air and deforestation, acid deposition is the result of improper
waste management and emission of wastage to water. Ozone depletion, green house effect and global
warming is also the result of emission to air, use of hazardous substances and production of toxic waste
causes waterpollution and air pollution respectively. Noise pollution is the result of emission of noise
from various industries near by the populated areas. Degradation of land arises due to emission of
waste water and deforestation. These are the environmental aspects and impacts which arise from
Indian metallurgical plant. Above table represents the impacts of related environmental aspects which
are (emission to water, deforestation, emission to air, improper waste management, use of hazardous
substances, production of toxic waste and emission of noise ) observed from the literature review and
also having the more importance for Indian metallurgical plant. From the table following observations
can be made.

industries. From the table following observations can be made.

(i) Emission to air environmental aspect affects the local air quality so it produces air pollution
which is the cause for impacts like global warming, green house effect and ozone layer
depletion. This aspect is having more severity, more probability and more frequency. It
means this aspect is very dangerous, having more possibility to occur and having more
repetition. The sum of this environmental aspect is 170.

Image 2: Air pollution

(ii) Emission of noise environmental aspect has the noise pollution environmental impact
which is more significant because this aspect is having the more probability, more frequency
and more duration as compared to other environmental aspects. The sum of this
environmental aspect is 160.

Image 3: Noise pollution by plant

 (iii) Releases to water environmental aspect produce the water pollution which is having the
more severity, probability, and frequency. The water released to ground also produces
impacts like damage to wild life, decreased land health and productivity and effect local air
quality. This aspect is also more harmful for environment. The sum of this environmental
aspect is 150.

Image 4: Water pollution

(iv) The impacts like damage to wild life and degradation of land
arising from deforestation and emission to water respectively have moderate significance
as their frequency, duration and probability is less as compared to other. The sum of these
impacts is 100.
(v) The rest of the aspects like acid deposition, use of hazardous substances and production of
toxic waste polluting land, water and air respectively also have moderate significance and
company management have to take necessary actions to minimize them.

CONCLUSIONS:
From the analysis of questionnaire data and by using ISO 14001 we came to following conclusions

1. The impacts like climate change, ozone layer depletion, green house effect’s, global warming results
due to air pollution because the air emissions from metallurgical plant contains CO2, NO2 and SO2 gases
which are harmful to the environment. so, emission to air is the most significant aspect arising from the
industries due to more severity, more probability and more frequency and manufacturing firms have to
take much care about it and has to make its monitoring plans.

2. Emission of Noise is the most significant environmental aspect as it is more repetitive as compared to
other environmental aspects. It produces noise pollution environmental impact from all industries to
greater or small extent. So, metallurgical plant have to think about this aspect.

3. Water which is released to surrounding having oxygen consuming substances, chlorinated substances
and impurities which affect the water quality and decreases land health and productivity. So, the
emission to water is second most important environmental aspect with respect to severity, probability
and frequency. Metallurgical plant have to think about its monitoring plans.

4. Production of toxic waste, use of hazardous substances, deforestation, acid deposition environmental
aspects were having more severity but their frequency and probability is less. So these come under
moderate categories and metallurgical plant have to make proper waste management plans to reduce
their impacts.