Mining Pollution

• Bad mining practices can ignite coal fires, which can burn for decades, release fly ash and smoke laden with greenhouse gasses and toxic chemicals. Furthermore mining releases coal mine methane which is a greenhouse gas which affects climate change.
• It causes black lung disease among miners and those who live nearby, and mine accidents kill thousands every year.
• Cardiopulmonary disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, hypertension, lung disease, and kidney disease have been found in higher-than normal rates among residents who live near coal mines.
• It destroys landscapes, forests and wildlife habitats causing displacement from the site of the mine when trees, plants, and topsoil are cleared from the mining area. Thus, it leads to soil erosion and destruction of agricultural land.
• Mining sediments pollute waterways when they are washed away by rainwater. The fish and other smaller plant life are badly affected, and cause disfiguration of river channels and streams, which leads to flooding.
• It results in chemical contamination of ground water when minerals in upturned earth seep into the water table, and watersheds are destroyed when disfigured land loses the water it once held. It lowers the water table, changing the flow of groundwater and streams and produces also greenhouse gas emissions.
• It also causes dust and noise pollution when top soil is disrupted with heavy machinery and coal dust is created in mines.
• Another type of mining called as ‘Underground mining’ causes huge amounts of waste earth and rock to be brought to the surface - waste that often becomes toxic when it comes into contact with air and water.
• Toxic levels of arsenic, fluorine, mercury, and selenium are emitted by coal fires, entering the air and the food chain of those living nearby.

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