Effects of Coal Mining on Air:

	Coal Dust Pollution: Coal mining and coal preparation both stir up small dust and coal particles, which combine with other chemicals in the air and can cause serious and potentially fatal respiratory problems like black lung.
	Railroad & Transportation: About 75 percent of all coal shipments in the U.S. are made via railroads, which are one of the nation's largest sources of soot and smog pollution. Both soot and smog can cause health problems, including respiratory problems and increased risk of asthma attacks. Coal-laden railcars and trucks also cause soot pollution when coal dust blows off into the surrounding air.
	Methane: Coal mining releases about 26 percent of all energy-related methane emissions in the U.S. each year. Methane is a global warming gas more than 20 times as potent as carbon dioxide, and is released from surrounding rocks when coal is mined, as well as during coal preparation and transportation.

Effects of Coal Mining on Land:

	Land Damage: Trees, plants, and topsoil are cleared from coal mining areas, destroying forests and wildlife habitat, encouraging soil erosion and floods, and stirring up dust pollution that can cause respiratory problems in local communities.
	Subsidence: Underground mining, including an intensive method known as longwall mining, leaves behind empty underground spaces which can collapse and cause the land above to sink. Known as subsidence, this process can cause serious structural damage to homes, buildings, and roads when the land collapses beneath them.
	Mountaintop Removal Mining: This destructive mining method destroys habitat, eliminates forests, and damages local property. The government estimates that if this mining continues unabated in Appalachia it will destroy 1.4 million acres of land by 2020.

Effects of Coal Mining on Water:

	Acid Mine Drainage: A common source of acid mine drainage is abandoned mines that fill with water that becomes acidic and mixes with heavy metals and minerals. When this toxic water leaks out, it combines with groundwater and streams, causing water pollution, damaging soils, and harming humans and animals. For example, in Pennsylvania alone acid mine drainage has polluted more than 3,000 miles of streams and ground waters, which affects all four major river basins in the state.
	Coal Preparation: Coal preparation uses large quantities of water and chemicals to separate impurities from mined coal, washing away the wastes in a sludge known as slurry. Up to 90 million gallons of slurry are produced every year in the U.S. In 2000, a 72-acre slurry impoundment in Martin County, KY breached, spilling 250 million gallons of water and 31 million gallons of coal wastes into the local watershed-over twenty times the amount of oil spilled when the Exxon Valdez ran aground.
	Mountaintop Removal Mining: Mountaintop removal mining involves literally blowing the tops off mountains to reach thin seams of coal. Then, to minimize waste disposal costs, mining companies dump millions of tons of waste rock into the valleys and streams below, causing permanent damage to the ecosystem and landscape. This destructive practice has damaged or destroyed approximately 1,200 miles of streams, disrupted drinking water supplies, and flooded communities.

Effects of Coal Mining on People:

	Black lung: Black lung is a group of respiratory diseases in coal miners that can cause serious lung disease and death. About 12,000 miners died from black lung in the U.S. in the ten-year period ending in 2002. Symptoms include coughing, spitting up black material, shortness of breath, and eventual hardening and scarring of the lungs. Although some of the symptoms can be alleviated, there is no known cure for black lung and no reversal of the symptoms.
	Communities: Coal mining can destroy sources of local revenue, including losses from tourism and recreation, such as the estimated $67 million lost annually in Pennsylvania from sport fishing because of streams too polluted from acid mine drainage. Coal mining can also damage homes and decrease property value, making it hard for people to sell their houses and move.
	Jobs: Coal mining has been a decreasing source of jobs over the last two decades and is still considered to be one of the most dangerous jobs in America. Estimates of mining production and working coal miners show that between 1985 and 2005 mining production in the U.S. increased 22 percent, while the number of coal miners decreased by about 55 percent. The average income of coal miners has also been on the decline, dropping 20 percent over the same period.