Green fears over mine closure

Longannet's fate was sealed by a massive flood

Environmental concerns are emerging over the closure of Scotland's last deep coal mine.

The company which owns the Longannet colliery was placed into liquidation after flooding brought work to a halt last month.

The end of deep mining in Scotland means that ScottishPower will be looking for more supplies from opencast mines.

More coal will have to come from opencast

And the company met officials from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) on Friday to discuss how pollution will be kept under control at the neighbouring Longannet power station.

Seventeen million gallons of water flooded the underground workings.

The immediate concerns focused on the future of the 366 miners and 150 contractors who lost their jobs.

The Fife Redundancy Response Initiative was launched to help workers find new jobs or retrain.

However, environmental concerns about the impact of the closure are also coming to light.

Sepa is closely monitoring the rising floodwater to prevent pollution reaching watercourses like the River Forth.

Opencast mines

It is also keeping an eye on emissions from the Longannet power station.

The low sulphur coal from the colliery helped to reduce air pollution.

ScottishPower says it will be looking for good quality supplies from abroad and more opencast coal to make up the difference.

That is a source of concern for a number of communities who do not want to see more opencast mines in their area.