Water Quality

There are many substances that affect stream health.

Nitrates are very important to stream health as they are necessary for plant growth. This also means that it can be very dangerous. Excess levels of nitrate can cause excess algae blooms, blocking sunlight from reaching the plants underwater and restricting their ability to conduct photosynethesis and create more dissolved oxygen.

Another important factor is pH. Most creatures can only live in moderate levels of pH, about 6.5 and 8.5. Any more acidic or basic and stream life can suffer.

Conductivity is the measurement of how well water conducts electricity. Because pure water is a poor conductor, we use conductivity to measure the amount of total dissolved solids, which can also block sunlight or affect the quality of water for stream life.

Turbidity is also very important because it measures the clarity of the water. Water that becomes too turbid blocks sunlight, and can limit plant's photosynthesis and DOC output.

Dissolved oxygen content is one of the most important indicators of stream health. Like land creatures, underwater creatures need oxygen to survive. Oxygen is much more limited underwater. Fish and other life need certain levels of oxygen to survive underwater. Plants produce oxygen through photosynethesis. It is also added through ripples on the water's surface.

Temperature is also very important because of DOC levels. If water is too hot, oxygen evaporated, leaving less oxygen for creatures to breath. The colder the water is, the more oxygen it can hold.

Alkalinity is the measure of a streams resistance to pH/acidity. This is very important. Waters that are too acidic can cause fish to die, and as acidic substances are added to the streams naturally, the water must resist it. Alkalinity is high in area near limestone.

E-coli is often released when fertalizers are introduced to areas near streams and run-off into the stream water. This can harm people who eat creatures from the stream and recieve kidney damage.

Opposing mountaintop removal

"Reclaimed" mining site

     Mountaintop removal is a mining method that creates hazardous living conditions and is often executed poorly. In mountaintop removal, the tops of mountains are blasted off and the overburden is placed in surrounding valleys. Mining then extracts the coal from the surface, before attempting to restore the original contour of the mountain. This reclamation (1) is often done poorly and creates large expanses of unusable land, often even repelling the natural wildlife. When executed, reclamation also (2) does not provide the variety of habitats or fauna that the original landscape provides.Even when reclamation is executed properly, overburden placed in surrounding areas (3) contaminate water sources, such as streams, that often provide the only water source to surrounding towns.

Mountaintop removal site

     Mountaintop removal also (4) eliminates jobs. Fewer miners are used because of mechanization and the easy access to the seam of coal. It also harms the nearby communities. Nearby communities are subject to (5) air and (6) noise pollution associated with the production of coal and blasting, respectively, and the health hazards it provides. They are also subject to an (7) increased chance of dangerous and unpredictable accidents, such as rock falls that may be caused by blasting.

Blasting site

     While there are some benefits to mountaintop removal, the negative consequences are far too great to be ignored. For more information, visit: http://ilovemountains.org/

Supporting Mountaintop Removal

A past mountaintop removal site used to develop a golf course

Disclaimer: I don't agree with Mountaintop Removal. Many of this advantages are disputed because of execution.
    Mountaintop removal can be a beneficial economic decision in many locations and situations. In mountaintop removal the top of a mountain is removed to access the coal seams underneath, before the original contour of the mountain is re-established through reclamation.  Reclamation is a necessary and required part of the mountaintop removal process and

Thriving reclamation site

all sites must have an extensive plan for the land after the process. In many situations, leveled land can be used for economic development, helping to stimulate surrounding communities' economies. Reclamation, when executed properly, enables land used for mountaintop removal to become as prosperous and varied as the original land and natural habitats.
     Mountaintop removal creates more mining jobs. Because of the planned and hesitant nature of approving mountaintop removal sites, sites are only designated when no other mining method is possible or safe, increasing the amount of coal mined and thus, the mining jobs created. Because the coal is removed from the surface, it is also much, much safer for miners.

Mountaintop removal creates jobs

     Finally, mountaintop removal is easy and profitable, mining coal quicker, safer, and cheaper for larger profit. For more information, visit: http://www.archcoal.com/environment/reclamation.aspx

Graph Analysis

As expected, the surface temperature of various surfaces and the AOT respond to each other inversely. When the AOT rises, the surface temperature falls, and vice versa. All of our surface temperatures follow a general trend in relation to each other, only varying a few degrees in either direction. Dark surfaces with higher absorption, like the asphalt, tend to have higher temperatures than lighter surfaces with higher albedo, like the football field, which is a grassy area. These results very strongly confirm the data we already know to be true.

Surface Temperature Graphs

Surface Mining

There are also many ways of mining coal on the surface as well.

Strip mining is a technique used to mine ore when the surface above the ore, or "overburden" is unsteady. In surface mining, the overburden is extracted and placed in the area where the ore from the previous mine has been evacuated. During the evacuation process, explosives are often used. This type of mining is easier, faster, and sometimes safer for miners. The devastation of the landscape however is extreme, with extra vegetation being deposited alongside the overburden and rain or flooding contaminating nearby water sources.

Contour mining is another type of surface mining. This type of mining, as suggested by its name, follows the contour of the hill or mountain to leave terraces in the hill. This method has both technical and economical limits. Although this method favors mountains regions, it is both unprofitable or technically impossible to continue after a certain point.

Mountaintop removal is the most controversial and environmentally damaging type of surface mining. In this method, the tops of hills or mountains are removed and pushed to areas between high elevation. The original area is never restored and water contamination is a large concern, despite being more financially effective and safer for miners.

Underground Mining Methods

There are variety of different underground mining methods, all having their own benefits and frustrations.

     Drift mining is an underground method that attempts to collect coal by intersecting or mining a coal seam in a nearly horizontal shaft. The coal can then be transported out from the ground by conveyor belt to be prepared and shipped out. This method is generally used when the coal is underneath a hill, but still above the adjacent ground level and is both cheaper and safer than most other underground methods, and uses less energy in transferring coal outside of the mine. Drift mining also risks occasional flooding, however, and can't be used in every circumstance.

     Shaft mining is another method used when the coal seem is well below ground level and excavates coal in a vertical manner. Shafts and elavators are used to transport both coal and the miner from the underground seam to the surface and vice versa, where the seams are commonly below 1,000 feet underground. When the ore is dynamited and broken into chunks, it is then put on a type of pulley system to be loaded into trucks. While this method of mining is much faster and conventional, frequently with better air quality, it is also more expensive than other methods, and historically the most dangerous. 

     Room and pillar mining is a system in which the mined material is extracted across a horizontal plane making an array of rooms and pillars, where the pillars are large blocks of the extracted material. The pillars can "squeeze" and compact, making roof-falls a constant danger. It is much faster than other methods, but it also yields fewer results, with much less coal being extracted. After the rooms have been excavated, the pillars are then mined partially, leaving the mine to collapse in on itself.

     In continuous mining, machines can be used to help excavate coal (frequently used in drift and room and pillar mining). One miner can operate a continuous miner to mine 5 tons of coal per minute. These machines have been use in varying frequencies since the 1940's, and account for about 45% of the product of current mining. Continuous miners are extremely inexpensive and safe when compared to other mining techniques, but do not always provide adequate roof support and eliminate some jobs previously given to miners. These machines are slowly becoming the prefered method of mining. 

Longwall mining also uses machines and is highly efficient. Huge mining machines support the roof with hydraulics as the cutter removes the coal. Again, when the coal is removed, the machines retreat and allow the cavern to collapse. This collapse can often impact the geological features above the air, such as rivers. Still, the method remains safer, provides better roof support, and extracts more coal than any other method. 





Primary sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/
http://www.ritchiewiki.com/wiki/index.php/Underground_mining