Overview of the environmental concerns of coal transportation

Abstract

More than 30 environmental concerns were analyzed for the transportation of coal by rail, roads (trucks), high voltage transmission lines (that is, from mine-mouth generating plants to distribution networks), coal slurry pipelines, and barges. The following criteria were used to identify these problems: (1) real physical environmetal impacts for which control technologies must be developed, or regulation made effective where control technologies presently exist; (2) the level of impact is uncertain, although the potential impact may be moderate to high; (3) the concerns identified by the first two criteria are specific to or exacerbated by coal transportation. Generic transportation problems are not included. The significant environmental problems identified as a result of this study are: (1) rail transport - community traffic disruption and human health, safety, and habitat destruction; (2) coal haul roads - road degradation, traffic congestion and safety, air quality, and noise; (3) high voltage transmission lines - changed land use without local benefits, biological health and safety effects, and disruption of world weather patterns; (4) slurry pipelines - water availability, water quality, and possible spills from non-water slurry pipelines; and (5) barge transport - impacts common to all barge traffic. (DMC)