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[bobf <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>]

This now posted at Treehugger.com directed to from similar article at 
discovery.com.  At the link there is a two-minute video showing aerial 
recording of the mess -- and it is a mess................

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2.6 Million Cubic Yards of Toxic Coal Ash Slurry Released in 

        Tennessee Dike Burst

by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 12.24.08



An environmental disaster of epic proportions just happened in Tennessee. 
Monday night 2.6 million cubic yards (the equivalent of 525.2 million 
gallons, 48 times more than the Exxon Valdez spill by volume) of coal ash 
sludge broke through a dike of a 40-acre holding pond at TVA’s Kingston 
coal-fired power plant covering 400 acres up to six feet deep, damaging 12 
homes and wrecking a train. 

According to the EPA the cleanup will take at least several weeks, but could 
take years. Officials also said that the magnitude of this spill is such that 
the entire area could be declared a federal superfund site. 


Toxic Sludge Got Into Tributary of Chattanooga Water Supply
Apart from the immediate physical damage, the issue is what toxic substances 
are in that sludge: Mercury, arsenic, lead, beryllium, cadmium. Though 
officials said the amounts of these poisons in the sludge could not be 
determined on Monday, they could (at the mild end) irritate skin or trigger 
allergies or (longer term) cause cancer or neurological problems.

This toxic sludge got into the Emory River, a tributary of the Clinch and 
Tennessee Rivers: The water supply for Chattanooga, Tennessee as well as 
millions of people living downstream in Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky. TVA 
says that as yet the spill (which they are characterizing as a mudslide or 
landslide, but frankly it's still toxic...) has not affected the water 
quality in the Emory River.

High Levels of Rain, Thaw Freeze Cycles May Have Weakened Pond Walls
On why the spill happened, the Tennessean speculated,


The area received almost 5 inches of rain this month, compared with the usual 
2.8 inches. Freeze and thaw cycles may have undermined the sides of the pond. 
The last formal report on the condition of the 40-acre pond — an unlined, 
earthen structure — was issued in January and was unavailable Monday, 
officials said.

Greenpeace Calls for Criminal Investigation
In a press release issued yesterday, noting that spills of similar substances 
have resulted in felony charges, Greenpeace called for a criminal 
investigation into the spill:


"Every facility like this is supposed to have a spill contingency plan to 
prevent this kind of disaster," said Rick Hind, Greenpeace Legislative 
Director. "The authorities need to get to the bottom of what went wrong and 
hold the responsible parties accountable."

TVA Releases Official Statement
In an official statement, TVA president and CEO Tom Kilgore said,


Protecting the public, our employees, and the environment is TVA’s primary 
concern as we supply electric power for the people of Tennessee Valley 
region. 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.

We are grateful no injuries have been reported, and we will take all 
appropriate actions to assist those affected by this situation.

We appreciate the continuing efforts of local and state agencies, as well as 
TVA employees, to respond to this situation quickly and efficiently. Our 
intense effort to respond effectively will continue 24/7 for the foreseeable 
future with the safety of the public our top priority.


Clean Coal, Yeah Right

As many people in the blog world are noting, it's this sort of thing that 
really makes the proposition of clean coal so absurd. Even if you can scrub 
all the CO2 out of it, you still have so many other toxic waste products 
associated with burning coal that have to be stored that carbon emissions are 
just a part of the problem. How many other holding ponds are out there 
waiting to burst?


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--- On Wed, 12/24/08, EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net> wrote:


> 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
>