Mining coal - Key potential environmental impacts
Air
Particulates
Particulate matter consists of solid or liquid particles that are released into the air and small enough to be inhaled. These include dust, soot, chemicals and other bits of material. Particulate matter is produced by natural sources (such as dust, volcanoes and forest fires) and human activities (such as mining, wood stoves, vehicle transportation and the burning of fossil fuels).
What is the issue?
Particulate matter can reduce visibility and contribute to asthma, bronchitis and other respiratory problems. It also combines with nitrogen oxides and other emissions to form smog. Fine particulate can penetrate deep into the lungs and poses a greater risk to human health than coarse particulate.
What is industry’s impact?
Surface mining of coal disturbs land and removes overburden, causing dust pollution. Coal dust can be picked up by winds at the mine site or from trucks and rail cars.
What is industry doing?
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dust suppressant systems
Preventative measures taken at the mine site and during transport and storage reduce the potential environmental impacts of coal dust. Coal mining companies manage dust through the proper design of handling facilities and by spraying dust suppressants on mine roads and coal stockpiles. Railway companies spray a coating of dust suppressant on the top of the coal in each rail car to minimize dusting.
Near Vancouver is Westshore Terminals, Canada’s largest coal-handling port. This facility has a fully integrated system that monitors weather conditions and different dust suppression methods, including water trucks, misting sprays in coal dumpers, wash-down areas for coal rail cars and off-site dust monitoring stations.
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air monitoring programs
In some cases, mining companies set up monitoring programs near their mines to continually measure particulate matter levels against provincial guidelines.
Greenhouse gases
Greenhouse gases such as water vapor (the predominant one), carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide contribute to the greenhouse effect, a natural phenomenon that traps heat in the atmosphere. The gases result from natural processes (such as volcanoes, cloud cover, ocean currents and plant respiration) and human activities (such as the burning of fossil fuels and emissions from landfills and agricultural processes).
What is the issue?
Since industrialization, human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels have increased the amount of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere. There is active debate in scientific, environmental and policy sectors over the potential of greenhouse gases to enhance the greenhouse effect, forcing the atmosphere to warm and the climate to change. The increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is one of several factors suspected of playing a role in heating and cooling the atmosphere (changes in the amount of solar energy reaching the Earth may be another).
Some environmentalists and scientists predict that rapid and continued warming of the Earth’s temperature could trigger serious consequences:
- increased temperatures of air and water around the world
- melting glaciers and increased sea levels
- impacts on water resources and availability
- extreme weather events (such as floods and droughts)
- health impacts (such as heat stress and the spread of infectious diseases)
- longer growing seasons in northern climates
- increased vegetation growth
At the same time, there are scientists who theorize that the warming expected is likely to follow a more gradual trend, as it has over the past several thousand years. They point to research showing changing levels of incoming solar radiation and the moderating effects of clouds, particulate matter and water vapor in the atmosphere.
Scientists agree that a great deal more research needs to be done into the enhanced greenhouse gas effect and the Earth’s carbon cycle to determine the importance of clouds, the role of oceans in absorbing carbon dioxide and the impacts of natural climate events.
Meanwhile, there is increasing international pressure to slow the rate in man-made greenhouse gases and ultimately to reduce these emissions. In 1997, an international meeting of government representatives adopted the Kyoto Protocol to reduce/limit greenhouse gas emissions in developed countries and countries of the former Soviet Union. The Protocol proposes an overall reduction of 5.2 per cent below 1990 levels for greenhouse gases and provides for a complex array of different approaches to be adopted by individual countries to meet their emission reduction targets.
What is industry’s impact?
The coal mining industry contributes to greenhouse gases through direct and indirect use of energy (for example, coal, diesel fuel, natural gas, gasoline, electricity). This energy use is essential to mobile mining equipment, mining procedures, coal processing and drying, transportation of coal and building operations.
What is industry doing?
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energy efficient equipment
The efficient use of energy contributes to operating savings and helps to lower the rate of greenhouse gas emissions. Companies look for ways to improve energy efficiency through mine planning and more energy efficient equipment. For example: bigger haul trucks carry more coal, delivering more tonnes of product per litre of fuel than smaller vehicles. Automated loading and unloading systems at mines and port facilities contribute to energy savings. And the aluminium bodies of coal-carrying rail cars are designed to be lightweight and use less fuel.
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clean coal technologies
Research programs are testing new technologies that could lower or nearly eliminate emissions from burning coal.
A number of coal conversion technologies — integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC), fluidized bed combustion, advanced pulverized coal combustion and super-critical and ultra super-critical burners — are operating or being developed. These more efficient technologies can be combined with district heating and cogeneration to achieve thermal efficiencies much higher than simple cycle natural gas turbines. When currently available filtration equipment is installed, clean coal plants are expected to bring emissions to near zero. Together, these technological advances could significantly increase the operating efficiency and environmental acceptability of coal-fired generation.
Through the Canadian Clean Power Coalition (CCPC), Canadian coal producers are working with electrical utilities and government to develop clean coal technologies that offer significantly reduced air and greenhouse gas emissions. The CCPC has completed feasibility studies for two clean coal technology demonstration projects, with the first targeted for operation in 2007.
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performance reporting
Performance reporting helps industry to identify new opportunities to continually improve their environmental performance. Canadian mining companies produce public environmental reports that document their environmental commitments and their progress towards addressing environmental impacts, including greenhouse gas emissions.
The Coal Association of Canada and mining companies also participate in Canada’s Voluntary Challenge and Registry (VCR) Program. The VCR is a private-public partnership that encourages public and private sector organizations to voluntarily reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and report yearly on their progress.
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