Plural of culm; coal dust, slack coal, or coal dust and small coal mixed with stone.
From Middle English culm or Welsh colm, referring to coal waste. The word may also relate to Latin culmen (peak) because culm floats to the top during coal processing.
Culm was so abundant in mining regions that people built entire 'culm banks'—giant piles of waste that became landscape features and environmental challenges that took centuries to reclaim.
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