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[EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

If it is going into the Clinch River, it is moving away from the 
mountains and westward towards the interior of the state.  There's some 
good fishing in the Clinch, or well, I suppose there used to be. :(

Bev

bobf wrote:
> This is the first I've seen of this, but apparently it happened
> earlier in the week.  It isn't making much 'national' news.  50 miles
> East of Knoxville, should be heading into the Smokey Mtns, if my
> memory is clear, which might not be the case.  That is some of the
> most beautiful land in the country if it is where I am remembering.
> 'seems like open water and ground water could be affected, but the
> article says nobody is , yet, claiming toxicity?
> Huh......................
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>  Tennessee sludge spill runs over homes, water
>
>
> By Samira J. Simone CNN
>
> (CNN) -- A wall holding back 80 acres of sludge from a coal plant in
> central Tennessee broke this week, spilling more than 500 million
> gallons of waste into the surrounding area.
>
>
> Environmental Protection Agency officials are on the scene and expect
> the cleanup to to take four to six weeks.
>
> The sludge, a byproduct of ash from coal combustion, was contained at
> a retention site at the Tennessee Valley Authority's power plant in
> Kingston, about 40 miles east of Knoxville, agency officials said.
>
> The retention wall breached early Monday, sending the sludge downhill
> and damaging 15 homes. All the residents were evacuated, and three
> homes were deemed uninhabitable, a TVA spokesman told CNN.
>
> The plant sits on a tributary of the Tennessee River called the
> Clinch River.
>
> "We deeply regret that a retention wall for ash containment at our
> Kingston Fossil Plant failed, resulting in an ash slide and damage to
> nearby homes," TVA said in a statement released Tuesday.
>
> TVA spokesman Gil Francis told CNN that up to 400 acres of land had
> been coated by the sludge, a bigger area than the 1989 Exxon Valdez
> oil spill.
>
> Video footage showed sludge as high as 6 feet, burying porches and
> garage doors. The slide also downed nearby power lines, though the
> TVA said power had been restored to the area.
>
> Francis said Environmental Protection Agency officials were on the
> scene and estimated the cleanup could take four to six weeks.
>
> Some of the goop spilled into the tributary, but preliminary water
> quality test show that the drinking water at a nearby treatment plant
> meets standards.
>
> "I don't want to drink it. I doesn't look healthy to me," Jody Miles,
> who fishes in the Clinch River, told CNN affiliate WBIR. "Do you
> reckon they can bring all this life back that's going to die from all
> this mess?"
>
>
> Still, there is the potential for more sludge to enter the water
> supply through waste runoff.
>
> "We're taking steps to stabilize runoff from this incident," Francis
> said.
>
> Although video from the scene shows dead fish on the banks of the
> tributary, he said that "in terms of toxicity, until an analysis
> comes in, you can't call it toxic."
>
> One environmental attorney called that statement "irresponsible." The
> ash that gives sludge its thick, pudding-like consistency in this
> case is known as fly ash, which results from the combustion of coal.
>
> Fly ash contains concentrated amounts of mercury, arsenic and
> benzine, said Chandra Taylor, staff attorney for the Southern
> Environmental Law Center.
>
> "These things are naturally occurring, but they concentrate in the
> burning process and the residual is more toxic than it starts," she
> told CNN.
>
> Appalachian environmentalists compared the mess with another spill
> eight years ago in eastern Kentucky, where the bottom of a coal
> sludge impoundment owned by Massey Energy broke into an abandoned
> underground mine, oozing more than 300 million gallons of coal waste
> into tributaries.
>
> The water supply for more than 25,000 residents was contaminated, and
> aquatic life in the area perished. It took months to clean up the
> spill.
>
> "If the estimates are correct, this spill is one and a half times
> bigger," said Dave Cooper, an environmental advocate with the
> Mountaintop Removal Road Show, a traveling program that explains the
> effect of an extreme form of mining.
>
> While the full scope of the TVA spill is being determined, coal
> critics are already concerned about its long-term effects.
>
> Cleaning up the mess, which could fill nearly 800 Olympic-size
> swimming pools, could take months or years, Taylor said.
>
> "We're very concerned about how long it's going to take" to clean the
> spill, she told CNN.
>
> Cooper agreed, saying, "It's 4, 5 feet deep. How are you going to
> scoop it up? Where are you going to put it?"
>
>
>
>
> http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/12/23/tennessee.sludge.spill/index.html
>
>
>
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--
The true significance of Sacajawea's involvement in the Lewis & Clark
expedition is that it was the first documented trip in history where men
asked a woman for directions and followed them, allowing them to arrive
at their destination.