Some questions for the day:
1. How do valley fills affect the runoff ratio in a watershed? How are flood peaks different in watersheds with more valley fill area? How does the physiography and the resulting way the West Virginians inhabit the landscape amplify flooding hazards?
2. What are the characteristics of mineable (either underground of surface) coal reserves? What are the techniques that are important in coal prospecting? Why are their so few coal geologists right now?
3. How is coal mined? What must be considered when mining an underground coal seam?
4. How and where is coal processed? Why does coal need to be proceeded (why can't it just be shipped directly from the mine to the power plant? How is coal separated from silicate material? What happens to the silicate waste material? Why is the disposal of silicate mine waste a problem in Appalachia?
5. How is environmental risk assessed? What factors need to be considered?
6. How do "we" decide the level of acceptable risk? What is the "standard" for acceptable risk using a predefined probability approach to risk definition? Who (and WHO) uses the 1 in 1 million standard? What does "1 in 1 million" mean? How do the current regulatory limits for Arsenic (As) in drinking water (USEPA or WHO) fit with the general risk goals of the regulatory community? Given the answer to the last question, is it safe to say that practical (ei economic) considerations also go into establishing current regulatory limits? What does the initiallism MCL stand for?
Slides from today are up on Sakai. Friday, we will look further into risk assessment and mitigation and recent efforts to address the waste stream of coal mining and combustion. There is no new reading assignment for Friday.
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