Dust Control – Soil Stabilization – Erosion Control

This is just an excerpt from a much longer story dealing with the impact of coal mine and coal mine dust control. the reason for bringing this issue to the forefront here is because many of the coal mine operations that are dealing with dust control should be looking at SCI’s Haul Road dust control products to lower their water consumption. Dust control in the long term can be a source of savings when done right. Not only will you aid the environment by cutting back on coal dust emissions, but you will also lower the cost of legal fees when dealing with the effects of un-controlled dust. here is a short pieces of the full story.

For LJ Turner in Wyoming, coal mining is slowly taking away the vast acreage of his ranch.

"They’ve taken away our land, they’re taking away our water, they’re destroying our air – this is affecting us," said Turner. "We’ve been ranching on government leases since the 1930s, and (mining) has taken 6,000 acres from us so far." Campbell County, Wyoming, where Turner resides, produces a whopping 35% of the nation’s coal from a series of mining complexes that lay waste to miles of pristine prairie.

Turner said thankfully his family has 10,000 deeded acres that they cannot take away, but that land is still affected because the Powder River Basin mining operations are affecting the water.

"They’re depleting the surface aquifers very heavily," he explained. "And the coal bed methane is depleting the deeper aquifers, so we’re losing well water and creek water."

The Powder River Basin includes the nation’s largest surface mine, the Black Thunder Mine. Aquifers and rivers that once irrigated crops and watered cattle are now being used for power plants and dust suppression. Across the prairies and mountains of the Basin, communities have been divided. The region, once home to numerous Native tribes and then family ranches, is now a patchwork of coal mines, power lines, rail lines, and oil and gas wells.

For Otto Braided Hair, it was very important to share the realities of mining to folks who may not think about where their electricity comes from.

"Within minutes of where we live, in almost any direction, there is on-going destruction from coal mining," he said of his home in southeast Montana. "The blues skies are streaked with a brown haze of pollution, and the sacred waters are being threatened and damaged due to coal bed methane development, among other indications of disregard to the environment."

Otto said he wants to encourage people everywhere to think about more than just themselves.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-nilles/the-true-impact-of-coal-m_b_340420.html