ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the following social costs of coal for deep-mined coal: mine fires, disposal of mine wastes, control of acid mine drainage, prevention of subsidence, loss of potential production due to accidents, black lung disease, and other costs. Some mine waste in deep mining comes from the mine itself, and some of it is a discarded by-product of the coal preparation process. The acid water which drains from both deep and surface mines is justly infamous. In the United States as a whole, nearly 11,000 miles of streams are affected by acid mine drainage on either a continuous or intermittent basis. Measuring the cost of damage to human beings–the cost of accidents– is far more complex than measuring costs to the environment, and it may in some ways be impossible. One cost of surface mining that is frequently forgotten is the diminished recreational value of disfigured land and polluted water.
