Mining coal is also a hazardous enterprise, both for humans and for the environ­ment. Underground mines are the most hazardous for humans because of cave-ins and methane-gas explosions. Deaths from coal mining in the United States aver­aged about 1,000 per year during the 1930s and 1940s, fell to about 450 annually in the 1950s and 140 in the 1970s. Death rates continued to fall to 45 per year during the 1990s, with an all-time low of 23 in 2005 (17). More recently, there was a jump to 47 deaths in 2006 and 48 deaths in 2010, with an average of about 35 in the first decade of the twenty-first century. This toll is just from mining accidents, but that is only part of the story. Black lung (pneumoconiosis) from breathing coal dust killed over 2,000 coal workers annually from 1970 to 1990. The number of deaths has dropped since then to about 1,000 in the year 2000 and about 700 in 2005 (18).

A recent report states that black lung caused or contributed to 75,000 deaths in miners between 1968 and 2007. After a 1969 federal law required mining compa­nies to control coal dust in the mines, black lung declined substantially. Since the late 1990s the rate has gone up, and the rate of the most severe form of the disease is nearly back to the levels of the 1970s. Furthermore, it is occurring in younger min­ers. This is due to companies seldom following the law in mitigating dust and is likely also due to the increased problem of silica dust produced in modern mining (19).

It is hard to imagine this degree of mortality being allowed in any other indus­try in the United States without a huge public outrage. But, of course, miners choose to do this work (though they may not have many other job options) and we do not protest too much since we greatly enjoy the electricity that coal brings to our homes!

Most mining for coal is not underground, however. The Powder River Basin in eastern Wyoming, the major source of low sulfur coal in the United States, has seams of coal 100 feet thick near the surface. The surface is removed and the coal is excavated by monstrous machines, creating huge open pits (Figure 3.1). Besides the obvious visual aspect of these mines, effects on groundwater are the major environmental concerns. In many western states, the coal seams are also a shallow aquifer, and the water has to be pumped out to allow mining. This can reduce groundwater in nearby wells. But, of course, there are not a lot of people who live in this area to complain of the view, dust, or water problems and there is good money to be made!

In the Appalachian Basin, another major source of coal, mountaintop removal with valley fill has become the mining method of choice. Vast areas of mountaintop

forests are clear-cut, then the mountains are blasted, the debris is removed with gigantic draglines and the valleys are filled with debris from the removal of over­burden (Figure 3.2). Eventually, the mountains are reduced to flat land as the coal seams are removed (13). The visual impact of this is far greater than that of the coal mines of Wyoming. There are also much more severe problems with water quality, especially acidic drainage, in eastern mining. The EPA estimates that acidic drainage has polluted about 11,000 miles of streams in Appalachia (3). Mining companies are required to reclaim the land but cannot replace the mountains and valleys. Furthermore, reclaimed areas have little regrowth of trees, headwater streams are lost, and biodiversity is reduced (20).

Transportation of all of that coal poses dangers also. Coal transportation accounted for 44% of tonnage and 24% of train carloads in 2007. Not only does it take a lot of fuel to run the trains, thereby generating Co2, but there are direct fatalities and injuries from train accidents. There were 578 fatalities and 4,867 nonfatal injuries from train accidents in 2008 (16).