Is Our Coal Addiction Killing Us?
For the past few centuries the world has lived on coal, with many countries still heavily dependent on it today. How much longer will this last? Coal was the spark that ignited the Industrial Revolution and it’s what keeps the lights on today. In fact, coal burning accounts for 27% of the total energy produced in the United States today, and just 10 years ago half of the United States energy was sourced from coal. Even though this percentage has gone down significantly in previous years, coal is still a large part of the economy of the United States and it’s expected to remain steady through the coming decades. But what if it can’t remain steady? Is coal our Achilles heel? Because of this large market that coal has created over the years, we have become much too dependent on it — what would happen if we overestimated and suddenly ran out? Regardless, coal deposits are expected to last for the better part of the century, or even longer, and one of the largest areas in the U.S. for coal mining is in the Appalachian Mountains. Since coal is finite and dirty, it’s crucial that stricter regulations be placed on coal production until it can be phased out.
In order to understand why coal needs to be phased out, we have to understand the entire cycle of coal and the many ways in which it can harm human health. But first, we have to take a look at just how crucial it is to the economy.
It’s impossible to deny that coal has a substantial impact on the U.S. economy, as well as the local economy in the Appalachians. Coal mining has been around for generations, and many of the local economies were built around the high employment of the mines. This is still true today with some counties seeing as high as 50% of the workforce being employed in local mines. If we shut off all coal production today many Americans would be without electricity, as well as many more without jobs. The transition from coal to other sources of energy is something that needs to be done slowly so that everyone in these areas won’t lose their jobs at once.
There are many counties in West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky at all rely heavily on the success of the mines. As the communities get further and further away from the mines, less and less people are employed by the mines. Those that live further away will still be affected by the coal particles they breath in while working, but the greater issue is those communities living in the counties highlighted in the navy blue.
To further understand how coal threatens local communities surrounding the Appalachian Mountains, we have to explore how coal is extracted from the earth and transported. Coal mines and coal facilities are usually not located near each other, because the power station in which it is burned is often located near a larger city. The U.S. Energy Information Administration reports that, “Trains transport nearly 70% of coal deliveries in the United States for at least part of the way from mines to consumers.” If you’ve ever seen a train going by with coal, you will notice that you can actually see the coal. There are no laws or regulations that require coal companies to cover the coal, meaning a lot of that ash and coal will fly off the train as it travels from one destination to another. There needs to be stricter regulations on covering coal, as this is what’s causing a considerable amount of the health related issues.
Aside from these communities, the workers themselves face many dangers by working in coal mines. Underground mining used to be the most common way of accessing coal, but in recent years other methods have become cheaper. An article by ABC talks about just how dangerous this type of mining can be, “In addition to cave-ins and explosions, miners face dangers they cannot see, from carbon monoxide to methane gas.”
Underground mining is also much more expensive because of the more complicated process and the larger, more expensive machines that are required. According to an article written by the Washington Post, “it’s commonly said that the United States is the Saudi Arabia of coal with more than 200 years worth of reserves, digging up those coal reserves and delivering them to customers has been getting more expensive. That’s because of rising costs of transportation, explosives, wages — and geology.”
With underground coal mining becoming too expensive, this drives coal companies to surface mining to make the most profit, with mountaintop removal, contour mining, and strip mining being the most popular. Strip mining is the process of digging a pit and removing earth that is covering the coal in large strips, while contour mining is removing seams of coal from the side of a mountain or hill. Mountaintop removal is one of the most common because it can, and usually is, combined with strip mining and contour mining practices.
Once the mountaintop has been blasted away, the coal can easily be extracted by digging strips and and by excavating the newly formed ridges that the explosives have created. The picture below is a perfect representation of what this process looks like. The extra rock and sediment that is not coal is dumped off of a cliff by dump trucks the size of the average American home, filling the valley or stream below it. The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) released a staggering figure in 2018, estimating that, “mountaintop removal has buried more miles of stream than the entire length of the Mississippi River.” As seen in the image below, the rocks and sediment don’t dry up the riverbed completely. Instead, the sediment and heavy metals slowly drift down stream, harming wildlife species and contaminating the water supply that flows into nearby towns.
The Appalachian Mountains stretch across many states with West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Virginia being the leaders in coal production. The practice of mountaintop removal causes many different toxins and heavy metals to be released into the water and air. An extensive research article published by researchers at West Virginia University found that, “Coal contains carcinogenic impurities including zinc, cadmium, nickel, arsenic and many others, and the mining and cleaning of coal at local processing sites creates large quantities of ambient particulate matter and contaminated water.” These findings can be linked to higher rates of cancer, respiratory diseases, increased risk of heart attacks, cardiovascular disease, and a shortened average lifespan.
This same study shows the locations of all of the mountaintop removal mines are located, along with the rates of death associated with respiratory diseases. Although this study was made a decade ago, many of the effects of these mines are still felt today due to the initial exposure to air pollutants, along with the lasting impact on the ecosystem from these mines.
These health problems are what make this issue more important then ever. Sure, there’s the climate and environmental damage caused by coal, but an issue that everyone can relate to is their health. Even if you don’t believe in climate change or the use of renewable sources, denying the effects on your own health is something that’s hard to ignore.
In summary, the use of coal is extremely important for the economies local to these areas and to the United States as a whole. However, it’s something that needs to slowly be phased out. The process of blasting away entire mountaintops to access coal seams is destroying the environment, and it’s detrimental to the environment, as well as the health of the workers and families living near these mining sites.
