Environmental Management - Coal Mining Industrial Doings - Coursework Example

Name: Course: Course Instructor: Date submitted: Environmental Management Introduction Coal is considered to the abundant fuel resource in many countries across the world. In these countries it is considered as the major source of fuel and may be the largest contributor to industrial growth. Evidently, the recent limited reserve potentiality of natural gas and petroleum is forcing the globe to look to other source of energy and many are resulting to practice coal surface mining for fuel. Singh asserts that, Coal mining with major focus on surface mining is one activity that requires large area of lands to be temporarily disturbed (p.90). It is due to such land disturbances that raises several environmental disturbances such noise, water, soil erosion and negative impacts on local biodiversity. Singh maintains that, environmental specialist have been in the forefront of ensuring that coal industries are coming up with steps with main focus on modern mining operation that will widely minimize impacts in all describable aspects of environment(p.92). Clearly, it is quite evident that by careful pre-planning projects, monitoring effects of mining with major focus of rehabilitating mined area and implementation of pollution control measures will ensure that the coal mining industries across the globe minimizes the negative impacts of its activities not only on the immediate environment but also on neighboring community. As an individual responsible for safety and environmental compliance program in the coal mining industry, the report focuses on analyzing types of programs and system that will be used to maintain environmental compliance. Further, any environmental issues within the industry to be managed will be identified in response whereby programs will be identified and prepared to ensure that the industry does not experience any kind of negligence. Coal mining industrial doings that are in compliance with environmental laws Clearly, coal mining operations such as blasting, extraction, crushing and drilling are some activities that are carried out in opencast and underground mines. Gupta asserts that, these activities are known to damage ecology and environment to adverse degrees unless controlled and planned action takes place. It is important for the coal mining industry to balance between environmental requirements and mining(p.44). Based on the impact of mining on air quality, coal mining causes air pollution through fugitive emission with particulate focus on sulphur dioxide, methane, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides. As a way of ensuring that these gasses are not emitted to the air the coal mining industry is indulging in underground mining as opposed to opencast mining. Underground mining respect environmental laws are respected by ensuring that fugitive emission of poisonous gases is restricted underground thus protecting the environment. Further, the use of acid mine drainage is an environmental hazard which is as a result of water pollution. Acid mine drainage is whereby coal industries uses various types of waste bodies that originate leaching and weathering of sulphide minerals(Gupta, p.45). Here, the industry can practice environmental laws by ensuring that they install domestic effluent treatment plant, mine water discharge sedimentation plant and workshop effluent plant which will ensure that water is treated and is free from contamination to the surrounding communities. In addition these treatment plants are constructed on a down flow line of coal mine discharge and workshop so as to ensure that pollution parameters found in the effluents are within the acceptable norm (Ngonyani, p.1). Within coal mining industry, it is evident that there is high intense of noise pollution especially from ground vibrations. According to Gupta, within the industry to ensure that environmental laws are complied to in relation to noise pollution, the industry have adopted the policy that ensures that noise level is within statutory limit by way of; using controlled blasting method, ensuring there are green belts around mine areas and colonies, issuing out of earmuffs to excavation workers and finally ensuring that proper maintenance of heavy earth moving machinery is controlled (p.45). Environmental control methods, procedures, and programs Within coal mining industry, there are several developed environmental control methods, procedures and programs that have been designed to handle environmental hazards. Based on social perspective, there two method that have been used in handling environmental method namely; rehabilitation action and indigenous people development action. Rehabilitation action is one which entails shifting individuals affected by mining whereby they are resettled and rehabilitated by giving land to them. On the other hand, indigenous people development actions focus on rehabilitating individual within one kilometer area from the mine workshops. The industry takes the responsibility of assisting the people in building of infrastructure such as schools, community halls and hospitals. The industry have widely adopted the concept of sustainable environment by ensuring that development of the mining industry meet the present need without compromising on the growth of future generation through environmental pollution (Ngonyani,p.1). This concept ensures that the industry retains a commitment not only to ecological integrity but also incorporate this integrity both in social and economic dimensions of sustainability. The industry has invested a lot on training and informing workers about environmental hazards. This is achieved through enhancing training program where training is provided when a new job is assigned. In addition to this, training can be through posting warning signs and establishing written emergency procedures in language that is understandable to the employees. Within the coal mining industry, there are various issues associated while working with governmental official especially in environment management. It is every government concern to protect its citizen from environmental hazard and for this reasons there are several acts in every country that focuses on ensuring that mining respect all environmental laws. Even with the indulgence of the government in monitoring mining process there are some measures that are considered to be unfriendly to the industry (Ngonyani, p.1). The industry should be given the full mandate to carry out ground engineering of the workshop where the industry gives comprehensive reports to the government. By so doing the industry is able to gather control and is responsible for its doing especially while focusing on environmental safety. Challenges Associated With Ensuring Company Personnel Follow Environmental Regulations The first challenge that is notable in ensuring that employees in the coal industry comply with he laid down environmental policies and regulations is rejection and non-responsiveness. The developmental model stipulates that any organization that striving towards change must undergo an initial stage of rejection and non-responsiveness. Prior to formulation of these policies, employees including top management were quite ignorant of the community welfare in so doing kept company as well as personal expenditure on the minimum. Therefore there is always a tendency of these employees to continue being ignorant of the policies which completely derails sustainability and progress of the new regulations. In non-responsive stage, financial factors become a major concern to the management of the company with regard to how much financial returns will be obtained from the environmental compliance. Hence issues dealing with the environmental factors are allocated very limited resources in terms of finances and human resources which threatens sustainability of the policies (Marinova p. 484). The practical solution to this problem for organizations that are at their early stages of developing environmental policies is a complete organizational culture. that compliance is not just equivalent to changing of values and policies but also entails creation of well defined and practical procedures to be followed by the employees and ensuring that they are committed to the policies (OECD p. 54). Another barrier to successful implementation of environmental compliance by employees is that majority of the employees view issues of the natural environment as very technical and hard to understand. They consider some of the procedures involved in environmental protection as hazardous and life threatening hence will fear to venture into such activities. Therefore management will be required to provide programmes or technical solutions that will ensure improved health and safety of workers and also production techniques that are safer and cleaner. This will involve elimination of hazardous activities in the production process, addressing water quality and waste disposal issues and introducing specified standards. In order to effectively introduce and maintain these measures the role of the Human Resource will come in handy. Surveillance to the level of compliance of the environmental laws is another major challenge. It is almost impossible for the policy makers to ensure that there is compliance at all levels of the corporation as this would be very expensive and time consuming. This therefore requires internationalization of new standards to be followed strictly by all members at different levels of the organization. For instance imposing a litigation cost for careless employees. OECD (p. 55) proposes that it is also important to change the values and attitudes of employees such that they are made aware of their responsibility to the environment as members of the company. This also implies reformation of the organization cultural values and generation of excitement and enthusiasm by the top management on the success of the new developments. Employee empowerment including training of employees on ways of protecting the environment will also enhance compliance. Another challenge that hinders compliance is poor management of the environmental issues. Many organizations introduce environmental laws into their systems but they do not last as a result of improper management. It is advisable for firms in the coal industry to have a well structured and systematic approach to compliance by introducing and Environmental Management System (EMS). The EMS will be responsible for managing operations of the company and ensuring that they comply with environmental laws. They will work closely with other departments such as the Human Resource and also the wider community to closely monitor progress and effectiveness of the policies (Marinova p. 476). Ethical and Professional Dilemmas of a Responsible Environmental Professional There are many challenges faced by environmental professionals. To begin with, the budget allocated to this profession has been declining over the years as their responsibilities are shared to other departments such as the departments of Agriculture, Labor, Building and Zoning departments in addition to other governmental departments (Friedman p.151). The efforts of environmentalists are no longer recognized by many governments as they consider responsibility of environmental protection as a national obligation hence should not be left under the care of specific people only. To deal with this there should be more National Campaigns for environmental professionals aimed at marketing the profession. According to Friedman (p. 149), matters pertaining to politics are other challenges that face many environmental professionals. Efforts to ensure protection of the environment by one company are taken to be a competitive strategy by another. Majority of the companies are unsure if the economic and financial impact of environmental laws and hence they become hesitant in implementing them. This makes it difficult for environmental professionals to promote environmental protection. Duranr et al (p. 345) argue that many companies especially those involved in the production of substances toxic to the environment have in many cases filed lawsuits against environmental organizations which intervene in situations of environmental destruction. Senior managers of majority of the manufacturing industries are mainly concerned with minimizing their operational costs and planning and completely reject the impact they might have on the community and environment. Duranr et al (p. 356) assert that many countries of the world still encounter the problem of communication breakdown whereby the public has limited information concerning environmental protection hence their participation is curtailed. This implies that the efforts of environmental experts to restore the destroyed environment are only limited to regions that are adequately informed and not all parts of the nation. In addition, there are no clear universal guidelines concerning pollution hence many nations hence many nations continue to suffer consequences of environmental negligence of other nations. Project time frame is another challenge faced by responsible professional environmentalists. Majority of environmental reaction strategies carried out by environmental experts are short-lived and they do not provide long term global solutions. These projects are not comprehensive and not properly articulated to solve potential future environmental problems. It is quite evident that issues of the environment significantly over the years hence environmental experts have had to review and redesign their strategies over and over with limitation of resources availed by state governments (Friedman p. 160). Work cited Duranr, R., Fiorino, D. and O’Leary, Environmental governance reconsidered : challenges, choices, and opportunities, Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, p. 267-365, 2004. Friedman, F., Practical guide to environmental management, Washington D.C.: Environmental Law Institute, p. 145-164, 2003. Marinova, D, The international handbook on environmental technology management, Elgar: Cheltenham, p. 475-498, 2006. Ngonyani, E.A. " Environmental Management and Protection Considerations in the Mining Industry: Examples of Contemporary Approaches to Regulations". Paper presented at the Government of Australia and United Nations Environment Programme Workshop on Environmental Regulation for Accident Prevention in Mining-Tailings and Chemicals Management 26 – 27 October 2000, Perth, Australia. Organization for economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Ensuring environmental compliance : trends and good practices. Paris: OECD, p.33-72, 2009. Singh, Gurdeep and Gupta, R. K. Water Pollution from Coal Washeries and its Impact on Damodar River. The Indian Mining & Engg. J. 44 (3), 2005. Singh, Gurdeep, Water sustainability through Augmentation of Underground Pumped Out Water for Potable Purpose from Coal Mines of Eastern India. Environmental Geochemistry, Vol8, No. 1 & 2, pp.89-94, 2005. Read More