That's a funny definition of "close" -- 700 miles by air, much further by track or road. We could buy harder, cleaner coal from Kentucky. It's even "closer."
WM: The principle way coal is being taken out of the ground these days is by strip mining, basically sheering off the tops and sides of mountains. The method involves huge machines and drag lines. The mountain is simply gone once the coal is removed. For the humans who take the coal out of the land, it's an improvement. The mine won't fall on their heads, the poisonous gases won't smother them. They'll still have black lung.
Back in the time, we heated our homes with coal and it was foul. I believe we used bituminous coal, the soft kind. Twice a year my mother washed down the ceiling and walls to get the coal dust off. Every day, in the winter, someone had to go downstairs and rake the "clinkers" out of the furnace and refill it. Then the clinkers were taken out to the curb to be hauled away. We had a big coal bin in the basement; the coal company came twice a winter to fill the bin. When it was empty in the summer we played in there until the mothers got on us for it. It wasn't just our house. All the houses around us did likewise. At the foot of the hill was an industrial area. Besides coal particulates, they coughed out all sorts of other crud. Our area of Cincinnati was featured on 60 Minutes maybe ten years ago as the most polluted neighborhood in the country. I spent my childhood having pneumonia, colds, bronchitis, ear infections, sore throats. When I left Cincinnati to move out to Illinois, the number of incidents of lung problems dropped some. When I moved up here, the incidents dropped even more. Course the damage was done by that point.
Cincinnati was a filthy city during the coal predominant years, as was many another city with the same situation--Pittsburg being the one I was familiar with at the time, Louisville, too. Insofar as there were coal furnaces here, the problem might have been worse since the winters are so much colder.
I don't recommend the proliferation of coal use under any circumstances.
WizardMarks, Central ________________________________
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