Mining in the Southeastern Saskatchewan

Coal is a major source of energy recoverable from the Earth's crust. Indeed, the material currently plays a significant role in the economies of both the United States and the world. It is likely to become even more important in the next century. The conterminous United States have thus been divided up into 28 coal regions. These various areas are further grouped into six larger coal provinces. Of the six, the Northern Great Plains Coal Province is rapidly becoming the nation's primary coalproducing region.

The Federal Commission has been charged with the responsibility of deciding whether a consortium of mining companies will be allowed to develop certain lignitedeposits within the Northern Great Plains Coal Province. The site in question occurs in a rural area of southeastern Saskatchewan near the border between Manitoba and North Dakota. This region's land surface is flat to gently undulating; the geologic strata are relatively horizontal. Extensive lignite deposits occur in 4 main seams under an overburden of glacial sands and clays. The seams are each several meters thick and are separated vertically by poorly consolidated siltstones and sandstones. The overburden ranges from a few meters to 20 meters in thickness.

The Commission must evaluate whether or not the economic benefits derived from mining operations will outweigh an

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ased concentrations of sulfate, calcium, and magnesium. In addition, levels of various trace metals including lead, manganese, nickel, chromium, cadmium, zinc, arsenic, and selenium, may also be elevated (NRC, 1990, p. 77). Yet another effect that surfacemining can have on water resources involves ground water availability. Largescale mining operations in western coal basins occurs over considerable areas and may last for as long as a decade or more. This development can potentially produce significant regional lowering of watertables. A deep surface mine may cause ground water to recede by as much as 200 to 300 feet. Moreover, this environmental alteration may occur at distances as great as 3 or 4 miles from the cut. Finally, in some instances, these changes may persist even after mining operations have been completed. Longterm alteration of ground water infiltration and recharge characteristics, can potentially result from permanent changes in hydrogeologic structure (NRC, 1981, p. 145). Of course, the alternative to developing this region's coal resources is to merely allow farming and cattle ranching to continue undisturbed. It should be noted, however, that both the raising of livestock and largescale farming ma
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Some common words found in the essay are:
North Dakota, Control Reclamation, Diodato Parizek, Coal Province, Environmental Quality, Solutions Coal, Plains Region, Analysis Coal, Branch Fischer, ground water, Federal Commission, nrc 1981, coal mining, water resources, mining operations, gillis 1991, nrc 1990, northern plains, mining companies, north dakota, plains coal province, northern plains coal, washington dc bureau, casper wyoming pp, nrc 1981 148,
Approximate Word count = 2399
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)