|
Services
/ Environmental
Management / Confluence
Newsletter
Confluence: December 2001, Vol.
4, No. 1
In Focus
Re-mining Coal Reserves
According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, acid
mine drainage is the number one water quality problem in the
Appalachian states. The EPA estimates that Appalachia contains
over 1.1 million acres of abandoned coal mine lands, over
9,000 miles of streams polluted by acid mine drainage, and
many miles of dangerous embankments, highwalls, and surface
impoundments. Many abandoned mine lands can contain large
amounts of coal. Modern surface mining techniques provide
mining operators with more economic means of "remining"
to extract remaining coal reserves. The agency, therefore,
is proposing to increase the rate at which abandoned mine
lands are reclaimed, allowing remining at up to 61 additional
sites across the Appalachian region. The EPA proposed in April
2000 to establish Clean Water Act effluent limitations guidelines
on remining operations that will encourage coal extraction
from abandoned mine lands and simultaneously encourage the
cleanup of acid mine drainage. Reclamation and removal of
the remaining coal in abandoned mine lands helps to eliminate
the sources of acid mine drainage. The benefits of remining
are threefold; it can improve water quality, remove hazardous
conditions, and utilize remaining coal. Of course, if this
remined coal is used for power generation, this poses yet
another environmental concern in the form of air pollution
and climate change, a fact which makes remining a controversial
solution to acid mine drainage. Despite potential drawbacks,
the EPA expects remining to reclaim about 1,800 to 2,500 acres
a year. To learn more about remining and its effects, you
can visit the following sites:
EPA Notice and Supporting Documents
http://www.epa.gov/ost/guide/coal/
EPA Guidelines & Standards for Western Alkaline Coal Mining
Subcategory http://www.epa.gov/ost/guide/coal/develop/index.html
Congressional Service Report, "Electricity Restructuring:
The Implications for Air Quality"
http://cnie.org/nle/eng-43.html
Forward>>
<<Back
Table of Contents
|
