Aspects concerning environment and ecology of coal mining areas.

Problem of air and water pollution in mining areas
Air pollution - major sources and influencing factors
Air quality and pollutants
Air quality in mining areas
Major health effects
AQ Index
Water pollution in mining areas

Post-industrial areas related to the coal mining sector are characterised by extremely high concentration of ecological, economical and social conflicts.
Natural resources and historically based development of heavy industry dating back to the beginning of 19.c gave rise to urban and economical development of “old European” regions, like Nord-Pas-de-Calais in France, Ruhr in Germany and Upper Silesia in Poland, but it also generated serious environmental conflicts and spatial consequences such as landscape degradation.

High concentration of natural resources extracting and related to coal industry has resulted in surface anthropomorphic transformation. There is a big number of heaps of blast furnace slag, metallurgical by- products and waste rock- remains of coal and ore extraction processes, as well as contaminated lands and areas of damaged forests. Subsidence and surface movements have been the reason of surface deformation, infrastructure and buildings’ damages. They have also disturbed water resources, causing surfaces and ground water pollution, disturbances of water layers, collapse sinks and areas of drought.
The industrial wastelands are typical element of the landscape of all the industrialised regions in Europe. As a consequence of rapid technological changes, the European industrial regions face the problem of managing derelict industrial areas and facilities. In many cases, the abandoned industrial facilities had become no longer profitable due to a liaison of two factors: ecological obsolescence and high productive costs.

Spatial structure of these regions reflects historical layout of workers settlements, that used to be established around industrial plants, therefore presently there are many industrial premises located within residential cities’ centres.

Urban regeneration is an integrated process that resolves problems on an urban scale and improve in lasting way both the economic aspects and biophysical and social environments. Sustainability in this context means also linking the reuse of brownfields with the creation of new function within the city structure.

Symbolical elements in the post- industrial landscape

The variety of industrial forms and their connections with surroundings creates the regional identity, a very important factor of the European future of post- industrial regions. Transformed landscapes can be taken as the result of the productive activity and from the perspective of its degradation, but on the other hand one can look on the industrial landscapes, as on „the magic space”.
In such look coal-mine heaps are Silesian Pyramids, and hoist towers are the spatial expression the unity of the world of the underground mine with the world above- ground, air and men – unity of „dark and lights”.

Landscape creates complexity of the functional, formal, symbolic and visual relationships that connected these aspects together. This approach let us interpret the landscapes as a palimpsest. The distinction of post- industrial landscape has a strong identification value and let us create readable “regional picture” based on respect for industrial legacies of history.

Problem of air and water pollution in mining areas

Air and water are universal resources of multifuncional character. Air is a resource intensively used primarily by industry, transport and public utilities. As a result the quality of air with respect to human health undergoes deterioration in large part of industrial areas. The situation is similar in the case of water sources.

Air pollution - major sources and influencing factors

Worldwide air pollution - contamination of the air by noxious gases and minute particles of solid and liquid matter (particulates) in concentrations that endanger health - is responsible for large numbers of deaths and cases of respiratory disease.
According to their chemical characteristics, concentration in the air mass and meteorological conditions, air pollutant substances may have a major or minor impact on air quality. The occurrence of strong winds and rain, for instance, may have a good impact on the pollutants dispersion, and the presence of sunlight can have a negative effect on air quality.
The atmospheric pollutants emission sources are numerous and changeable, and can be anthropogenic or natural. The natural sources include natural events as volcanic eruptions, seismic activities, geothermal activities, wild-land fires, high- wind events or the atmospheric resuspension or transport of natural particles from dry regions and the anthropogenic sources result from human activity, as industrial activity or traffic. An especially significant increase of the anthropogenic pollutants has been observed since the last 200 years when the high-scale industry developed. Between these pollutants are gases, vapours, dust and smoke with different chemical characteristics. All of them are usually generated by production proccesses, transport or overloading.
The emissions height also affects the pollutants dispersion. At ground level, the vehicles emissions have a bigger immediate impact in the nearby environment, than emissions from high chimneys, which may cause problems at a greater distance from the source.

Pollutant	Major anthropogenic emission sources
Ozone	Ground-level ozone is a “secondary” pollutant formed in the atmosphere by reaction between volatile organic compounds (VOC) and NOX in the presence of sunlight. VOC are originated in petrol stations, car exhausts, and the use of solvents and paints.
Particulate matter	Particulate matter consists of the “primary” particles emitted directly into the atmosphere (from certain processes) and secondary particles, formed as a result of chemical reactions of gaseous pollutants, such as sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOX) and ammonia (NH3), in the atmosphere. Particulate matter in the ambient air is classified according to size, so PM10 and PM2.5 refer to all particles with a diameter less than 10 micrometers (the “coarse” fraction) and 2.5 micrometers (the “fine” fraction), respectively. The main sources are road transport, power stations and other industry; burning of wood or coal for home heating can also be an important source.
Sulphur dioxide	Industry is the main source (burn of combustibles with high sulphur levels); The burning of wood or coal for home heating can also be an important source.
Nitrogen dioxide	Road transport is the main source; Produced also by power stations and other industrial sources (burn of fossil fuel at high temperatures).
Carbon monoxide	Road transport is the main source.

Air quality and pollutants

Air quality is a commonly used term to express the pollution degree in the air we breathe. Air pollution is both a local and a trans-boundary problem and results from a mixture of chemical substances, emitted to the air or resulting from chemical reactions in the air, changing the natural composition of the atmosphere.
A pollutant is any substance introduced directly or indirectly by man into the ambient air and likely has harmful effects on human health and/or the environment as a whole.
The list of atmospheric pollutants usually includes sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), oxides of nitrogen (NOx), particulate matter (PM), lead (Pb) and ozone (O3), benzene (C6H6), carbon monoxide (CO), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), cadmium (Cd), arsenic (As), nickel (Ni) and mercury (Hg).

Air quality in mining areas

Air quality in industrial areas results from the impact of large industries which are the background for pollutants imission and emission from low sources like individual boilers and wheeled transport.
Air quality depends first of all on pollutants emission from energy production sector i.e. emission of sulphur oxides, nitrogen oxides, suspended dust. Steel and iron metallurgy is responsible mainly for the emission of carbon monoxide and is the second, after energy production, source of dust emission and gaseous pollutants. Steel and iron works emit also significant volumes of nitrogen oxides, chloride and fluoride compounds as well as heavy metals in dust. Mining industry, mainly due to emission from plant boilers, is also ranked on high position with respect to dust and total gaseous pollutants emission. Non-ferrous metallurgy is a source of heavy metals, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and carbon oxides emission.
In the Upper Silesia region high exceedances of permissible air pollution standards concerning such basic pollutants as sulphur and nitrogen oxides refer mainly to short time episodes during the winter season. In the case of suspended dust, the exceedances may be high.
Hopefully, emission related to large industrial plants have been consequently reduced parallel to restructurization of metallurgy and chemistry sector. Beside technological quality of industry and energy production sector, public utilities effectiveness and lifestyle of residents are crucial factor impacting the quality of air in industrial areas.
Coal mining causes adverse environmental impacts. These include:

Release of methane, a potentially dangerous greenhouse gas
Interference with groundwater and water table levels
Impact of water use on flows of rivers and consequential impact on other land-uses
Dust
Subsidence above tunnels, sometimes damaging infrastructure
Rendering land unfit for the common usage of the area.

In addition, burning of coal, mainly for power generation, introduces a large amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
It is also thought that coal mining is harmful to the quality of air in the surrounding regions. While burning of coal in power plants is most harmful to air quality, the process of mining can release pockets of hazardous gases. These gases may pose a threat to coal miners as well as a minor source of air pollution.

Major health effects

Different kinds of effects can occur related to the atmospheric pollutants, including global impacts, such as, climate change and ozone layer damage, and more regional or local scale impacts, such as, air quality degradation, causing human and ecosystem exposure to toxics, damage to human health, ecosystem and material.
The effects of pollutants change with time of exposure and concentrations of air pollutants. Therefore usually chronic and acute effects are mentioned by health authorities. Acute effects occur when high concentrations of a pollutant cause damage already in a short term exposure. Chronic effects are related to a long-term exposure to even lower levels and the effects result from accumulative exposure to the pollutant. Many pollutants have both chronic and acute effects.
The most frequent human health effects are problems in respiratory and cardiovascular systems. When air pollution episodes occur, people with lung and heart diseases, especially the elderly, are more sensitive to the high concentrations of air pollutants. In some cases, their symptoms may increase to such an extent that they need a change in treatment, or admission to hospital.
The table below describes the different health e

Pollutant	Health effects at very high levels
Ozone	As a powerful oxidant, ozone irritates the airways of lungs, increasing the symptoms of those suffering from lung diseases (including asthma, irritation of eyes, nose, and throat).
Particulate matter	Fine particles can be carried deep into the lungs where they can cause inflammation and a worsening of heart and lung diseases (especially asthma and respiratory infections).
Sulphur dioxide	Irritates the airways of the lungs, increasing the symptoms of those suffering from lung diseases.
Nitrogen dioxide	Irritates the airways of the lungs, increasing the symptoms of those suffering from lung diseases (including asthma).
Carbon monoxide	Carbon monoxide can lead to a significant reduction in the supply of oxygen to the lungs. Affects particularly people suffering from heart diseases.

AQ Index

Air Quality Indices (AQI) are nowadays a widespread way of reporting to the public short term (daily or hourly) air quality information. AQI aims to be an indicator of air quality aggregating information from different pollutants and converting the concentration levels to a common/single index scale. The scale levels for each pollutant are built using legal values and the health effects that can be experience within a few hours or days after breathing a certain level of air pollutant. In most cases, the global index level corresponds to the level of the worst pollutant. Commonly, local authorities provide health recommendations associated with the index levels.
There isn’t any commonly accepted AQI in Europe. The pollutants considered and their aggregation criteria vary, as well as, the index levels, or spatial aggregations.

Water pollution in mining areas

In industrial areas available natural resources of water are very poor due to anthropogenic contamination. It is an effect of both wastewater discharge to the environment and improper disposal of pollutants, waste, operational failures, spills to the environment. For instance, in the Katowice Agglomeration most of river’s water don’t fall within any purity classes. Because of contamination, only a small portion of surface waters can be used for economic purposes.
All forms of mining are likely to generate areas where coal is stacked and where the coal has significant sulfur content, such coal heaps generate highly acidic, metal-laden drainage when exposed to rainfall. These liquors can cause severe environmental damage to receiving water-courses. Coal mining releases approximately twenty toxic release chemicals. Among industrial contamination, mineral compunds contained in mining water from coal mines and non-ferrous ores mines have strong impact on water quality. High contents of heavy metals, mainly zinc and lead, were determined in the rivers. In modern mining, operations must meet standards for protecting surface and ground waters from contamination, including acid mine drainage. To mitigate these problems, water is continuously monitored at coal mines.

Sources:
1. MARQUIS (Multimodal Air Quality Information Service For General Public) project
2. Environmental profile of the Katowice Agglomeration, UNCHS/Habitat Project 1999