The human impact of the KPC project has been stark. Villages such as Segading, Sepaso and Sekerat in the Bengalon mining concession have experienced serious problems as a result of the mining. While families of those directly employed by the mine have benefitted from jobs, the communities as a whole have had to deal with significant water pollution, loss of land and other problems. 

Villagers report serious dust and noise disruptions from blasting, which occurs frequently without any prior announcement. The blasting has shattered window panes and caused cracks in the buildings. Children wake up crying in shock and fear from nighttime blasting.

The KPC concession areas cover a vast 90,000 hectares, encompassing several villages. It borders on the East Kutai National Park, which has been compromised by the presence of the mines. By 2008, an estimated 75 percent of the forest area, supposedly "protected" as part of the East Kutai National Park, had already been destroyed; a process exacerbated by the presence of mining companies.

KPC has also been associated with massive environmental contamination, according to a report released in August 2014 by JATAM, Indonesia’s Mining Advocacy Network. According to interviews with local communities and other research undertaken by JATAM in June 2014, the KPC mine has had the following impacts:

• Wastewater from KPC’s mines is frequently discharged untreated into the Sangatta and Bengalon Rivers, contaminating river water that is used by villages downstream, killing fish and other aquatic organisms. Rivers are contaminated with heavy metals and suspended solids. Mine drainage has caused water to become either acid or alkaline.
• Studies have shown that the Sangatta River is especially contaminated with heavy metals, with lead concentration reaching 18 times the regulated level. According to a researcher from the Agricultural University of Sangatta, the river water is no longer safe to be consumed due to the risk of skin disease and carcinogenicity. Communities living along the Keraitan River now have to buy water for their daily needs as the river water is contaminated.
• The mine has destroyed wetlands, forests and agricultural soils with high water retention capacity, leading to exacerbated flooding downstream. KPC’s mining operation has destroyed the soil over an area of 90,000 hectares, which has radically altered the hydrology of the entire Sangatta River system. Villagers report frequent flood events affecting at least three villages and a main road thoroughfare in the region. Villagers report that flooding can persist for a week and that they have received no aid or compensation from the government or KPC.
• Indigenous Basap Dayak people have also reported massive fish kills in the Keraitan River due to contamination by KPC pit B. The dead fish used to be edible species traditionally caught by the community. Their depletion has resulted in economic and nutritional losses.

The village of Segading is home to a community of indigenous people called the Dayak Basap. When the KPC coal mining company first arrived in the region, the members of community decided to agree to move from their ancestral land in order to take advantage of the benefits the mining company promised. Unfortunately for the Dayak Basap, not only did these benefits fail to materialise but, as the mine expanded, the community was then forced to move twice more against their will. Currently, the leader of the village, Gagay, is fighting to prevent the KPC mining company from forcibly displacing them for a fourth time to a plot of land that is much smaller than the land they are being told to leave.

The older Sangatta mine has also caused a lot of damage since it became operational in 1992. For example, in 2001, farmers from the village of Kabojaya near the Sangatta pit protested the fact that they could no longer use the local water supply or grow crops as a result of pollution from the mine. Protests against KPC from farming communities led the company to hire Group 4 Securicor (now G4S) to provide security.

KPC has also been associated with human rights abuses according to a report released in August 2014 by JATAM, Indonesia’s Mining Advocacy Network. According to interviews with local communities and other research undertaken by JATAM in June 2014, the KPC mine has had the following impacts:

• KPC has been intimidating people to force them to move. The local municipality has stopped providing health workers or teachers to the village. Villagers from Keraitan and other relocation sites report having insufficient land to cultivate or hunt.
• Villagers living around the mining operation have no access to electricity despite the fact that KPC has been mining the area for more than 20 years and have installed 18.9 megawatt of thermal generation capacity.
  
• Communities have lost land to the mining pits. People have been offered meager amounts of compensation for lost land, fruit trees and other resources.
• Villagers report that there has been no aid or assistance from KPC or the government of East Kutai Regency. “We feel that KPC wants to drive us out of our village, our homeland”, said one interviewee.

One study, supported by the KPC mining company and funded by the World Bank, found that the small amount of money received in compensation and jobs has gone almost completely to the men. With local women seeing almost no benefit and, in cases where they lose their farming role, becoming economically dependent on their husbands.