Various mining activities like drilling, blasting, extraction, transportation, crushing damage the environment and ecology, unless carefully planned and controlled. The various impacts of mining on environment and their mitigation measures are mentioned below:
(I) Effect of Mining on Air Quality
Air pollution results due to the emissions of particulate matter and gases including SO2, CH4, NOX and CO. Dust is produced in most of the mining operations. The remissions contribute towards global warming .Dust at uncontrolled level leads to poor visibility, breakdown of equipment, increased maintenance cost, polluting nearby surface waters and stunt crop growth. The coal industry at present faces the following challenges – ground level ozone , issues which can be
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Opencast mining results in large-scale land disturbance whereas underground mining causes enough damage through subsidence. The surface subsidence inflicts severe damages to engineering structures such as bridges , drainage , buildings and highways, besides interfering with ground water regime.
(V) Impact of Noise and Vibrations from Mining
A cumulative effect of all mining activities produces enormous noise and vibrations in the mining area, which constitutes a source of disturbance. The consequence of noise pollution in and around the mining area leads to noise-induced hearing loss which influences work performance and makes communications uneasy. Besides, the forest fauna the surrounding areas to the mines/industrial complexes are also affected by noise .
MANAGEMENT PRACTICES
Coal India Limited implemented the Environmental and Social Mitigation Project (ESMP) in 25 selected opencast mines with World Bank funding during 1996 to 2002. ESMP consisted of two
Kalgoorlie Gold Mine The Kalgoorlie Mine, also known as the Super Pit due to its impressive depth of 600m ( Figure 1.), is a mine situated in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia ( Figure 2.) that primarily extracts gold. Often considered to be the largest open-cut mine in the nation (goldsfieldtourism.com, article 62), Kalgoorlie extracts a tremendous 22 000 grams of gold each year. The gold rush that happened in Australia (during 1851-1914) was a result of the discovery of many mining sites like the Kalgoorlie gold mine.
Other problems develop such as workers being killed from construction, strikes from workers, and the
Coalmining was a prominent industry throughout eastern Pennsylvania, northern Maryland, and Wyoming. In 1885, legislation was passed in order to restrict the working age of miners. Breaker boys, who worked aboveground to sort slate, rocks, and other debris from the coal, were required to be at least twelve years of age. Underground miners were required to be at least fourteen years of age. Boys ' parents often presented a fake birth certificate with an altered date of birth in order to have their children, who were often as young as five or six years of age, work in the mines.
There are over one millions wells in the United States of American that have been fracked since the 1940’s (Brantley, 2013). “Fracking,” also well know as hydraulic fracturing, is a process that is used to extract natural gas from rocks. Wells are drilled vertically into the ground to a desired depth, and then they continue horizontally between shale rock that is believed to contain natural gas. Once the well is drilled, a mix of water, sand-like substances, and other chemicals are pumped into the well at extremely high pressures in order to fracture the shale rock which will release the gas trapped inside. Once the gas flows out of the rock and into the well, it will be drawn back up to the surface and then it is processed, refined, and shipped
Phones require the mining of certain minerals as they make up different parts of the phone. Mining leads to water and air pollution as waste minerals can leak into surface and groundwater, and large tools and trucks used for mining and transportation also use fossil fuels. Despite believing living off the grid positively impacts the environment, contributing to the global economy still causes pollution and global
1. Even though fracking reduces carbon emissions, it is still harmful to the environment. For example: water pollution/contamination. There can be accidental seeping of the chemicals (possibly carcinogenic) and can contaminate groundwater around the site due to bad practice (this imposes harm to both the ecosystem and people 's health).
Proposition P================ Propostion P was advanced by an advocacy group known as the Santa Barbara Water Guardians, mainly to prohibit the usage of hydraulic fracturing (i.e fracking) within Santa Barbara, threatening its water supply. As such, Proposition P is absolutely essential, not only to ensuring the health of residents in Santa Barbara, but to ensuring long term social, economic, and environmental stability. Where opponents to Proposition P may tend to make arguments which solely favor the number of jobs in the community, or which perhaps presume the importance of the oil industry in Santa Barbara, over other concerns in the community, these other concerns need to be considered more fully in order to illustrate why support of Proposition P is absolutely essential.================
“A painting showing an early factory plant shows that the smoke rising from the factory was black and full of coal ashes, affecting the air. Also, because the factory is next to water, it can be assumed that the factory has dumped into this water, causing it also to become polluted”(Document 3). Yes, wonderful products came from these factories; things like clothing and cars, but coal was being used to power these machines that produced. Black coal ash rose up into the sky and was being breathed in by the people and animals. Coal is not the best thing for people’s lungs.
I. Introduction Long ago, since ancient time humans have been using energy and striving for the betterment of themselves, it all began with the use of tools which led to the discovery of fire, from this great breakthrough, humans evolved exponentially. Eons have passed and humans are still using fire to ease their daily lives from cooking, mobility and electricity, but due to the increase in advancement of technologies, it has also increased damages to the planet, thus the governments had started to move towards a producing or replacing the old harmful substance to a less harmful ones, but since one of the most used and one of the highest cause of ozone depletion is chlorofluorocarbon (CFC), it has been banned from production due to the Montreal Protocol 1991, one of the causes as to why it was banned is one of the chemicals it contain is chlorine, once a certain condition is met it depletes the ozone layer, ergo with earth shield compromised more harmful ultraviolet rays will get into the planet, thus only the reservoir of CFC are being used today, now it’s a race against time to replace this CFC with other materials that is less harmful and either as or more efficient than it. There are not a lot of ways to replace chlorofluorocarbon. Some of the most prominent ones are hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC), hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) and magneto caloric effect (MCE).
Introduction Mining is the extraction or removal of minerals and metals from the Earth, and the world market is expanding for mineral commodities. Chrome, cooper, coal, diamonds, gold, iron, manganese, nickel, silver, and zinc are just some examples of what is mined (Blight, 2011, p. 77). Mining is a money generating business that flourishes, in addition to governments receiving money from mining revenues; however, the effects of mining are often very damaging to the environment. As one of the foremost contributors of deforestation, trees and vegetation are cleared or burned, for the purpose of mining. Mount Polley Incident and Environmental Impact
“Air pollution from gas drilling in Arkansas’ Fayetteville Shale region imposed estimated public health costs of more than $10 million in 2008” (Jackson et al. 2014). Pollution caused by fracking can even impact people far away by contributing to the smog and soot emissions. Fracking is a greater contributor to ozone smog than automobiles in fracking popular areas (Allen).
Additionally, the directly uses many scientific evidence showing how miner’s health are affected. For example, the director states that_______ from _______. This shows that to additions of harmful effect, caused by inefficient energy source, to the planet earth, poor energy sources can also harm the health of worker directly. By emphasizing the struggles of these miner, the director makes the audience feel empathy to the worker and make them aware were they got the energy source. By knowing how they got the energy, the audience will began to question to change the energy source as it is by the blood and sweat of poor worker that they are able to get
Energy is a key factor in today's society, especially in Kentucky. Kentucky's main energy resource is coal, 91.8 percent of our energy comes from this resource but coal is nonrenewable, meaning that there is a limited amount of this type of fuel. Coal mining is also detrimental to the environment, people living and working in coal mining communities have a higher chance of getting lung cancer. with surface mining, this has been linked as a cause for poisoning local residences from the chemicals used in the mountaintop mining. there are still issues with the environment and natural wildlife in the surrounding areas of the coal mining as well.
This industry not only provides the populous with inexpensive power but also creates a steady employment option. Besides an increase in the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, the mass accumulation of coal ash and its leaks and spills into local rivers negatively affect the environment (“Energy-Related”). According to Earthjustice, “North Carolina generates over 5.5 million tons of ash per year” ("Coal Ash Contaminates”). In Eden, N.C. in 2014, the largest coal ash spill occurred, releasing 39,000 tons into the Dan River, which supplies drinking water to surrounding communities, a habitat for aquatic organisms, and recreational activities (Gallucci). Coal ash, also known as coal combustion residuals or CCRs, contains hazardous byproducts from power production, including arsenic, lead, mercury, and chromium, that can poison drinking water sources for humans and devastate wildlife habitats (“Coal Ash Basics”).
The treatment of such coal reduces its sulphur content avoiding excessive atmospheric pollution. Through surface mining methods such as stripping and open-pits, leave the land sterile, losses of vegetation and habitats for fauna results. However land reclamation initiatives which restore vegetation cover and soils reduce the negative. Impact of surface coal mining. Acid mine drainage is another negative impact of coal mining especially in wet environments.