benzene in soft drinks (usa), page-5

jbedwards

To stand self righteously like that behind a transient BTEX reading 1/5th that of the WHO drinking water standard and about 1/5th that in your average can of soft drink is kind of ridiculous don't you think?

With respect, what an unusual position to take whilst Kingaroy residents have live every day with the pall belching from nearby Tarong Power Station.

Using publically available emissions data from Tarong, assuming an even distribution of wind directions and that all emissions settle out over a radius of 10km from Tarong then every year by my quick calculations you have:

# 80g of particulates settling on every m2 of land from which heavy metals etc can and will leach

# 92g of hydrochloric acid settling on every m2 of land which in most cases will accelerate the leaching of heavy metals from the settling particulates as well as not being too flash for natural soil pH balance

# 1.4g of volatile organic compounds (which I am pretty sure will include BTEX) for every m2. If that 1.4g dissolved into an average annual rainfall of say 900mm then 1.4g per 900mm of rainfall per m2, which is 1.4g per 900L of rainfall, which is 1.4g per 900,000g or 1 part per 642,857 or 1555 part per billion ... if just 1% of those volatile organic compounds was BTEX then that would be 15.55 parts per billion of BTEX mixed with rain falling on every m2 for a radius of 10km around Tarong.

In reality, those pollutants would spread further and wider (particularly the volatile BTEX compounds) and not be at the above calculated levels ... but that is no defence for the Qld Govt nor the people around Kingaroy as those contaminants are then polluting neighbouring regions and it would be a hypocritical argument to in any way defend that.

Dex