Environmental Issues and their Solutions

The environmental challenges from coal mining include coal mine accidents, land subsidence, damage to the water environment, mining waste disposal and air pollution. These are either environmental pollution or landscape change. A conceptual framework for solving mine environmental issues is proposed. Clean processes, or remediation measures, are designed to address environmental pollution. Restoration measures are proposed to handle landscape change. The total methane drainage from 56 Chinese high methane concentration coal mines is about 101.94 million cubic meters. Of this methane, 19.32 million, 35.58 million and 6.97 million cubic meters are utilized for electricity generation, civil fuel supplies and other industrial purposes, respectively. About 39% of the methane is emitted into the atmosphere. The production of coal mining wastes can be decreased 10% by reuse of mining wastes as underground fills, or by using the waste as fuel for power plants or for raw material to make bricks or other infrastructure materials. The proper use of mined land must be decided in terms of local physical and socio-economical conditions. In European countries more than 50% of previously mined lands are reclaimed as forest or grass lands. However, in China more than 70% of the mined lands are reclaimed for agricultural purposes because the large population and a shortage of farmlands make this necessary. Reconstruction of rural communities or native residential improvement is one environmental problem arising from mining. We suggest two ways to reconstruct a farmer's house in China.