unnatural disaster coal

Coal ash also contains selenium which is already needed in our body, but excess amounts can lead to impaired vision, paralysis, and even death. The ash contains a lot of lead, exposure to lead can cause numerous issues in your brain affecting your nervous system and can cause brain swelling. Arsenic which is found in the ash can be harmful, if ingested it can lead to nervous system damage and cardiovascular issues. If arsenic that is found in the ash is absorbed through the skin can cause skin cancer. Coal ash contain boron also can cause damage to the intestines and even death. The EPA is responsible for protecting the environment from these types of spills, but in the case of properly disposing the ash the EPA ruled that coal ash was classified as a non-hazardous material leaving it up to the companies to dispose of it as they want

The families that live near the mine also face being diagnosed with dangerous side effects. Since the ground becomes polluted with the chemicals, most homes in the surrounding area don’t have running water because the aquifers are polluted by said chemicals that originate from the mine. And the air becomes toxic also, toxic levels of arsenic, fluorine, mercury, and selenium is emitted by coal fires, entering the air and the food chain of those living nearby. These pollutants affect the water also, making it dangerous to any living life form. It causes deformities and creates birth defects if ingested into the body (Breitenender 2). And to an extent, causes death if the water is drunk regularly. It can go unnoticed also if people don’t check their water. And if a person is unfortunate enough to live near these areas, then he likely has no running water due to the pollution of his local aquifer. People are deprived of a vital source to live and they travel far to get water. And these areas are arid which means water is a necessary

This paper will review past practices and policies relating to mountaintop coal mining, evaluate and analyze current research on the impact of coal mining on human health, and provide recommendations for further research guided by logic and in agreement with biblical truth.

It produces a great deal of our electricity; however, we don’t spend a lot of time thinking about the implications. As Goodell notes on the first page, “We love our hamburgers, but we’ve never seen the inside of a slaughterhouse.” Isn’t that the truth? When we fuel up our cars, we don’t think (much) about the ramifications of our oil dependence. When we flip a light switch, we do not associate that with the coal-driven mountaintop removals in West Virginia. In this book, “BIG COAL” Jeff describes Goodell thrusts those associations right in your face. He covers the history of the industry, tells the stories of the people in and around the business, and while most of the book is based on U.S.-happenings, he does spend a chapter in China. We would imagine the coal industry was none too pleased with Big Coal because it paints a really ugly picture of the industry. Goodell contrasts the coal industry with the individuals whose lives have been negatively impacted by coal in one way or another. He details corruption and politics that allowed the industry to delay implementation of pollution control equipment. And on a big picture level, he argues that continued usage of coal poses a serious threat to the earth’s

The United States EPA started the “Superfund” program back in the 1980’s to describe sites of mass hazardous contaminants and pollutants locations, which are the number one priority for remediation. Now, this is orientated around human health and safety, not really what conservation biologists typically are concerned with. Instead they are focused on the species and ecosystem interactions. However, human toxicological contamination is a great motivator for the government to pay attention to an environmental disaster. If Lead starts showing up in children’s blood tests, then most likely the public will push for something to be done, which is when

Things like mining too far into a wall that connects to an older mine, thus increasing the danger of a collapse, is common. Other practices include shoddy dams that contain the slurry, a mixture of water and fine particles of coal, which do not always meet structural regulations that can and have broken and flood nearby communities (Light and Light, 2006). There are other environmental issues that are associated with coal mining. Acid mine drainage is the result of sulfide minerals being exposed to oxygen. This produces sulfuric acid and can dissolve heavy metals from the waste rock, making it bioavailable. Without proper treatment, this will poison the water systems near that mine and will seep into the streams, creeks, and even ground and well water. The water turns orange and is impossible for anything to live off of the water or in it (Kirsch, 2014). Another issue of coal mining is airborne coal dust, which can result in Black Lung disease. This is caused by inhaling too much coal dust and is common in miners, but with surface mining becoming more prevalent, more coal dust is being released into the air and drifting down to the communities. More children and elderly people are having respiratory problems that many believe are because of

Since 1742, West Virginia has provided our nation and the world with the finest coal found anywhere. As of today, West Virginia’s coal miners apply useful and effective mineral removal technology that makes other countries envy their counterparts around the world. West Virginia’s exports more coal than any other state in the country. West Virginia has more longwall mining systems than any other state. This leads the nation in underground coal productions and sets the pace for the rest of the industry in recovery and environment protection. At the same time, West Virginia coal industry displays a sense of responsibility for health, safety and environmental that is incomparable anywhere in the world. Over the years, coal has

According to the NAACP Press Release, low-income families as well as minorities are the victims of these power plants; stating that the 6 million people living near coal-fired power plants make over 3,000 dollars lower than the national average. “Coal Blooded: Putting Profits Before People”, the source of this

Water contamination is the next major concern of environmental groups. The Environmental Protection Agency, the governmental regulatory agency created in 1970 to manage the enforcement of environmental policy, states its concerns in a letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 2009 (United). Specifically addressing mines in West Virginia and Kentucky, the EPA expressed serious concerns over water pollution from strip mining (“EPA”). The rupture of an ash dike at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston Fossil Plant in Roane County, TN on December 22, 2008 granted credibility to the EPA’s concerns. In an article published by in Environmental Health Perspectives, Rhitu Chatterjee comments on the poisonous substances contained in ash produced from processing coal, listing

Alaska is widely known for its vast untouched wilderness, abundant wildlife, and its coal. Sam Weis explains in “The Local and Worldwide Impacts of Mining Alaska’s Coal,” that Alaska is home to an estimated 5.5 trillion tons of coal, which is approximately one-eighth of all the coal on Earth (25). The energy that comes from burning coal is in great need not only in the United States, but also all over the world. According to Gail West, in his article titled Alaska’s Coal Clean Burning and Abundant,” “Japan, South Korea, and Chile are three primary markets for Alaska’s coal exports (113). This dire need for coal has led many people wanting to turn towards Alaska as a primary source of coal. There is just one problem; the coal and the

Jason Hayes, communications director for the American Coal Council says “the industry over the past few decades had invested over $100 billion in cleaning up emissions and it’s already been effective. All of the important noxious pollutants have decreased markedly over the last 30 to 40 years. We’ve been doing all of this on top of dealing with everything else.” Coal may not be green, but it is a source of energy American needs. It is cheap and efficient. Without coal, America wouldn’t be anywhere near where it is today. The coal mined here isn’t just used for energy. America’s

Before 1890 in West Virginia, you would not be able to see any signs of coal mining. However, after 1890 coal mining surged due to new legislative representatives favoring the use of land in an industrial sense. Coal mining was now dominating the southern region of West Virginia. In the beginning, coal mining did not seem to have many effects on the people or land; but, eventually people became very aware of the negative consequences that came from coal mining. People are now aware that coal mining in West Virginia was almost entirely detrimental to the environment as well as the community.

Following the Dan River coal ash spill, revelations that coal ash pollution has contaminated rivers, lakes, streams and drinking water resulted in an unprecedented public demand for legislative action. Duke Energy produces an estimated 1.2 million tons of coal ash a year in North Carolina. Currently, all coal ash sites have groundwater contamination and nearly all are releasing contaminants into rivers, lakes or reservoirs. The Coal Ash Management Act of 2014 was spurred by the Dan River disaster. In February 2014, approximately 39,000 tons of coal ash and 24 million gallons of wastewater laden with toxic heavy metals were discharged into the Dan River from a broken stormwater pipe beneath an unlined Duke Energy coal ash pit. Coal ash has

I’d like to provide another resource about how hazardous coal ash is to water and health. It provides additional information about coal ash and its problems. Most coal ash comes from coal-fired electric power plants. Actually, burning coal releases the greenhouse gasses that affect global climate. Moreover, Processing coal and transporting coal to the power plants adds

Every day in the United States people turn on a light, use the oven, and watch television. The energy needed to do these trivial everyday tasks is often taken for granted, yet it is greatly required at all times. A small percentage of this energy is provided by the burning of coal to produce power. The removal of coal for energy has been a long thought out process since the early 1960’s (Holzman). The removal of coal up until around the 1990’s was all done underground, removing the coal by using pick axes, mules, and rail cars. During the early and late 1990’s, the extraction of coal was modernized to mountain top removal (Holzman). Mountain top removal is the process of blasting the top of a mountain away to retrieve coal from inside the