about these pages
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As the only national organization that focuses exclusively on coal-related issues, Citizens Coal Council seeks to educate and advocate for change. Since its founding, CCC has worked on a wide variety of issues, including myriad impacts of the whole coal cycle.
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The coal cycle
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The coal cycle typically begins with exploration. Coal companies generally must seek permits for their activities, but they don't necessarily always follow through on this requirement. The land is then cleared for the mining activity, and the method and extent of this clearing depends on the landscape. In some cases, blasting occurs at the beginning of the actual mining process in order to expose the coal seam. The coal is then mined, processed, transported to power plants, and burned. After it is burned, the toxic byproduct (coal combustion waste or coal ash) is disposed of.
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blasting |
Blasting is used in surface mining as a method to fracture rock. The rock is drilled with holes, which are then filled with explosive materials, usually nitroglycerin, then capped with an inert material. The blast then is set off with detonators that splits the rock and exposes the coal seam, which, in surface mining, usually lies a few feet beneath the surface... (read more)
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mining |
Citizens Coal Council’s current work on coal mining issues generally focuses on strip mining, blasting, mountaintop removal, and longwall mining. For background on these issues, please follow the links below.
Strip Mining Strip mining is a type of surface mining where the overlying vegetation, rock, and soil (overburden) is removed in order to reach the underlying coal seam, which usually lies a few feet beneath the surface. Explosives are used to fracture any overlying rock, and then heavy machinery is used to remove the overburden and dump... (read more) Longwall Mining Longwall mining was first introduced in the United States in the early 1950s and was more frequently used in the late 1970s. Today longwall mining accounts for about one-third of total underground coal tonnage. This is accomplished because of the increased production from longwall mining, an underground mining technique that removes entire seams of coal... (read more) Mountaintop Removal Mountaintop removal mining is an extremely destructive form of surface mining that primarily occurs in the Appalachian Mountains of the eastern United States in which large quantities of overburden (soil, rock, and vegetation) are removed by blasting with explosives and heavy machinery to expose the underlying coal seam. The overburden is then dumped into valleys... (read more) |
processing |
Citizens Coal Council’s work on the issue of coal processing focuses on the toxic byproduct that is coal slurry/sludge... (read more)
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burning |
A coal-fired power plant is a power plant that burns coal to generate electricity; currently around 50% of the electricity generated in the United States comes from coal-fired plants. Machinery within the plant converts the energy from coal combustion (heat) into mechanical energy, which operates an electrical generator. Byproducts of electricity production from coal-fired plants include nitrogen, nitrous oxides, sulfur oxides, fly ash and mercury... (read more)
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waste disposal
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