International Journal of Scientific Research in ________________________________ Review Paper . Multidisciplinary Studies E-ISSN: 2454-9312 Vol.5, Issue.12, pp.115-121, December (2019) P-ISSN: 2454-6143 An Overview of Impact of Coal Mining On Water Resources Prashant Hindurao Kamble1*, Jaydeep Suresh Kumbhar2 1,2Environmental Science and Technology, Dept. of Technology, Shivaji University, Kolhapur, Maharashtra, India *Corresponding Author: [email protected] Available online at: www.isroset.org Received: 05/Dec/2019, Accepted: 15/Dec/2019, Online: 31/Dec/2019 Abstract- Water is one the basic needs of the mining industry. All the operations of mining, directly or indirectly require water for their functioning. The mining industry has been utilizing water carelessly without anticipating the negative impacts it is having on the ecology and the bio-diversity of the region. Acid mine drainage has become a common phenomenon associated with mining. Deaths and diseases caused by contaminated water have roused concerns everywhere. The critical situation requires carrying out water analysis of all the water bodies in and around the mines to determine the source, cause, effect and remedies of the different contaminants and pollutants. This is also a part of the corporate social responsibility that the mining industry has pledged to. This also helps in reassuring the people of the pro-development motives of the mining industry. Keywords: Mining, water, ecology, biodiversity, acid mine drainage, corporate social responsibility. I. INTRODUCTION the stated national energy strategy of maintaining fuel diversity to secure economic and security objectives. Water is the principal need of life on earth and is an essential Furthermore, the security, stability and availability of coal component for all forms of life, from micro-organisms to reserves provide a mitigating effect against price swings of man. The world’s water resources are under pressure and other fuels. must be managed for human survival. The need for physio- chemical analysis of water is very vital and all sources of Mine water may be acidic or neutral depending upon the water must be known before consumption. Mining of coal pyrite content in the coal as inorganic impurities (Salmon, deposit all over the world are being carried out under 1999). Acid mine drainage occurs in those mines in which complex hydrogeological environments causing a range of sulphur content is found in the range of 1-5% in the form of water problems affecting the production and utilization cost. Pyrite (FeS2). This degrades the water quality of the region Water pollution has now reached a crisis point. Almost every in terms of lowering the pH of the surrounding water water body is polluted to an alarming level. The estimation resources and increasing the level of total suspended solids, of quality of water is extremely important for proper total dissolved solids and some heavy metals. In non acidic assessment of the associated hazards. The extensive mining mines, water quality shows high hardness, TSS and bacterial activities also adversely affect the environment. Due to lack contaminants. The high value of hardness of mine water of proper planning and negligence of regulations an reduces its utility in domestic purposes. Pollutants such as appreciable amount of environmental degradation and TSS, TDS, oil and grease and heavy metal are found in the ecological damage to water air, and soil occurs. coal mining waste effluents. Management of this liquid waste at the primary level and secondary level has always been Coal-based electricity is strategically critical to any country’s suggested to control the pollution level at the source. These environment and water resources though it provides concerns threaten to scatter the whole idea of coal being used economic stability via energy security. In the present world, as an alternative power source. over 50% of the countries, e.g. United States’ derive electricity from the use of domestic coal. This is in view of The problems associated with mining activities are land the fact that no energy source is currently available that can degradation, disposal of overburden, deforestation, washing provide a viable, low-cost alternative for electricity rejects, subsidence, water pollution due to wash off, production. United States, for example, has a doubled coal discharge of mine water, acid mine drainage, coal washing production since 1970, increasing from 520 million tons in operation, air pollution due to release of gases and dust, 1970 to over 1 billion tons in 2001 (AFREPREN/FWD, noise pollution, mine fires etc. Water pollution from coal 2006). The continued use of coal in a clean and includes negative health and environmental effects from the environmentally acceptable manner is possible and supports mining, processing, burning, and waste storage of coal, © 2019, IJSRMS All Rights Reserved 115 Int. J. Sci. Res. in Multidisciplinary Studies Vol. 5(12), Dec 2019 including acid mine drainage, thermal pollution from coal determine methods to predict the hazards in advance of plants, acid rain, and contamination of groundwater, streams, mining, if possible. rivers, and seas from heavy metals, mercury, and other toxins and pollutants found in coal ash, coal sludge, and coal waste. The study on geology considers the mineralogy and Water contamination is inevitable. It is bound to occur due to weathering of the rocks, dip of zone 0 coa* occurrence, the presence of various minerals in the rock. competence of the rocks and sediments (surface and near surface geology) (Callaghan et al, 1998). They are Our efforts should concentrate on checking the pollution augmented by geologic discontinuities i.e. ractures and levels of different parameters and keeping it within the lineaments, surface topography, ground water (including prescribed standards. As far as concerned, water pollution water elevation and fluctuation), method of mining, rate of due to man-made activities should be prevented in the best advance, backfilling, time and structural characteristics possible manner. This is where coal mining has the biggest (Brady, 1998). impact. Our actions are not checked. In our endeavor to meet our demands and fulfill targets, we fail to realize the impact Despite all the advantages earmarked by the energy sector, our actions can have on the environment. We also fail to the discovered coal deposits in Mui basin contain sulphur, realize the proper and safe use of resources around pollution iron, volatile matter, ash, carbon, nitrogen and trace elements prone areas. like Cd, Se, Cr, Pb and Hg which are known to be environmental unfriendly if poorly handled especially where We must adopt methods that are less prone to damaging the there is inadequate information on geology, geological environment, in particularly the water bodies, both the structures, soils and groundwater flow systems (Rushton, nearby and the far away ones. For this purpose a complete 2003). Also both opencast and underground mining method survey of the water bodies in the mining area should be can be a recipe for water pollution. In the process of carried out to understand the challenges that need to be exploration and mining, huge amounts of water are faced. Water quality analysis gives an overall picture of the discharged to facilitate the operations. This water often quality of water present in the mines. It helps identify the contains high loads of total suspended solids (TSS), total areas of concern, the parameters which are most harmful, dissolved solids (TDS), hardness and heavy metals, which contaminants which pollute the most and the areas which contaminate the surface and ground water regimes. cause the contamination. The high magnitude of pollution of water during coal In short it helps in identifying the source, the causes and the activities is connected to poor knowledge, assessment or effects. This helps in finding out the methods to reduce the understanding of an area’s geology, geological structures, damages. It also helps to carry out measures which prevent topography, drainage systems and location of water sources the contamination in the near future. To get a good idea of (Dhar, 1993). For example in Mui basin there is no the water quality in the mines, analysis has to be carried out documented assessment of all these issues in relation to systematically and in a pre-planned manner since parameters transmission of coal wastes since the discovery of coal in change with changing environment. The samples have to be early 1950s and subsequent exploratory drilling and targeted preserved in a proper manner to get near accurate results. A mining. Such assessments would have kept in mind the number of methods have been designed for this purpose. permeability of the rocks, the character of the soils and the Different institutions have come with different levels of trend of the geological structures when designing the mining permissible limits for various parameters. and the associated activities e.g. the sites of disposal (Kariuki et. al., 2008 and 2010). II. RELETED WORK III. LITERATURE REVIEW The study of the impacts of coal mining on hydrology with respect to geology has been directed towards the Pathak and Banerjee (1992) carried out water analysis in repercussions of mining efficiency/economics, mine Chapha incline of Umaria Coalfield in eastern Madhya dewatering, ground control and safety (Brady et al., 1988). Pradesh to determine the water quality parameters including Throughout the history of coal mining, geology has been trace element detection and microbial analyses. Sampling at responsible for serious injuries and fatalities as they are the site of investigation was done by random selection so that routinely misidentified and frequently inadequately the composition of the sample was identical to that of the supported. Brady et al., (op. cit), therefore recommends parent water body. The samples were collected before the studies on geology of an area to examine the physical monsoon period as well as after corresponding to low and characteristics of the geologic anomalies in order to make high water table conditions.