Fire hazard in coal waste dumps - Selected aspects of the environmental impact

In areas of coal basins all over the world, wastes are produced along with the process of coal exploitation. Formerly, the wastes were deposited to waste dumps in large amounts. The presence of coal waste dumps at the surface is strictly related to their environmental impact. One of the more significant problems related to the environmental impact is constituted by spontaneous fires. This paper presents the selected aspects related to the negative impact of spontaneous fires on the environment. Based on own experience and scientific literature, the causes and the mechanism behind the formation of fires as well as the factors impacting the development of fires were presented. The paper also concerns the environmental impact resulting from the process of leaching of contaminants from the wastes to surface and ground water as well as fire-related dust and gas emissions to atmosphere. It has been found that the emission of substances to the atmosphere is the most disturbing to the environment. The emissions include significant amounts of toxic substances and greenhouse gases.