Impact Assessment From Coal Mining Area in Southern Brazil

Abstract

The mining activity is highly environmental impacting, being the excavation process and waste sterile rejects crowding the main pollution sources. The Santa Catarina Coal Basin has great importance, considering that contains 4.3 billions tons of coal (13% of the Brazilian reserve) and 6.400 hectares of degraded area. That way, the study objective was to characterize and identify the ambient impacts derivated from coal mining activities, at the Sideropolis city, SC. The base method used to evaluate was The Leopold matrix which adaptations were made according to a qualitative attribute weighting matrix to verify the significance of impacts. The interaction between two actions of the enterprise and 11 generated environmental impacts was analysed according to the attributes of frequency, extension, duration, direction and degree, both in the physical and anthropic environments. All impacts had a negative direction, where the most striking activity was the opening of the cava, which, when forming the acidic lagoon, changes the surface water quality, being described as of great importance. Therefore, recognizing the principal environment problems could help on strategies to accomplish the recovery requirements of degraded areas on this area.

Invisible contaminants and food security in former coal mining areas of Santa Catarina, Southern Brazil

“…The lack of food security due to the consumption of contaminated fishing resources has been reported in local fishing and river communities from the south, southeast, and northeast coasts of Brazil, as well as by indigenous Amazon communities [13,22,85]. In recent decades, the global return of incentives for coal extraction has raised concerns about the food security of local communities [32]. Coal is currently responsible for providing 29.6% of global energy needs and about 42% of all global electricity [32,86].…”

“…In recent decades, the global return of incentives for coal extraction has raised concerns about the food security of local communities [32]. Coal is currently responsible for providing 29.6% of global energy needs and about 42% of all global electricity [32,86]. The resurgence of coal mining may increase the contamination of areas previously mined for coal and add to the number of areas impacted by heavy metal contamination.…”

“…1), in the main coal mining region in southern Brazil. We selected 14 former coal mine areas, according to the following criteria: areas of at least 1 ha, which were abandoned for at least 30 years, with a history of heavy metal presence [32,34,52,53], and with inhabited zones located at a maximum distance of 300 m from the deactivated mine areas. Some of these abandoned mine areas underwent an initial restoration process, which consisted of filling the pit with pyrite and covering this layer with another layer of clay soil (30-50 cm) over the disturbed mine soil.…”

“…Due to diminishing profitability in the late twentieth century, some mined areas were abandoned while local communities developed in these locations. Even after decades of inactivity, abandoned mine areas are still contaminated by heavy metals [32] and may pose a risk to the food security of these communities. Some abandoned open-pit coal mines were restored according to each company's practices, reconstructing the landscape and soil to create minimal conditions for vegetation development [33].…”

Invisible contaminants and food security in former coal mining areas of Santa Catarina, southern Brazil

“…Due to diminishing profitability in the late twentieth century, some mined areas were abandoned whilst local communities developed in these locations. Even after decades of inactivity, abandoned mine areas are still contaminated by heavy metals [24] and may pose a risk to the food security of these mining communities. Some abandoned open pit coal mines received restoration treatment, reconstructing the landscape and soil in order to create minimal conditions for vegetation development [25].…”