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TechnoratiA First Hand Account of the TVA Coal Ash Disaster in Kingston, TN
This is a monumental and unprecedented environmental catastrophe. The TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) disaster is now estimated at 5.3 million cubic yards of coal ash, or almost twice as large as the 2.8 million cubic yards generated by the World Trade Center collapse.
The most comprehensive aerial video of the spill is here:
This spill is affecting two tributaries of the Tennessee River. The Tennessee is a major river system and a drinking water source for millions of people downstream in Chattanooga, plus Alabama, west Tennessee and Kentucky. Coal ash is the waste material captured after the coal is burned for electricity - burning coal generates about half of America's electricity and according to Rolling Stone Contributing Editor Jeff Goodell, there is three times as much coal ash as municipal solid waste generated in America every year. ( "Big Coal," Jeff Goodell page 123). About 130 million tons of coal ash and power plant scrubber sludge are generated annually.
Coal ash contains heavy metals like mercury, arsenic, and lead. An article in Scientific American magazine dated Dec 13, 2007 states that coal ash is more radioactive than nuclear waste.
In response to an urgent request from environmental activists, I brought water testing equipment to members of United Mountain Defense working at the spill site. UMD has set up an emergency crisis management center in Kingston, TN to coordinate the citizen response to the disaster and handle the media onslaught. On Saturday Dec 27, a flotilla of citizen water testers in kayaks, including members of UMD and Waterkeeper Alliance, toured the spill site, navigating among huge chunks of coal ash, which they refer to as "ashbergs." "We named the highest peak Mt. Ash," said Matt Landon, UMD volunteer staff person.
TVA - which refers to the disaster as an "ash slide" on their website www.tva.gov - is telling the public not to worry, the water is safe, the coal ash is inert. The TVA website says "The public may call (865) 717-4006" - but no one answers that phone and it will not accept messages because the mailbox is full (Monday morning 9:27 AM EST).
The Knoxville News Sentinel (Monday, Dec 29) states "the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reported that "very high" levels of arsenic were found in a water sample collected from the affected area and that several heavy metals have also been found in quantities "slightly above drinking water standards." (ref: http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/dec/29/tva-not-holding-its-head-high/ )
Officials with TVA and EPA have already lost some credibility with the local residents.
On Dec 23, the day after the spill, the Tennessean first reported that the size of the spill was 2.6 million cubic yards. The following day TVA said that the entire intact mountain of coal ash mountain was actually 2.6 million cubic yards, and that about two-thirds (or roughly 1.8 million cubic yards) had broken through the earthen embankment. Now TVA is saying that 5.3 million cubic yards of their coal ash mountain collapsed into the water. There are 200 gallons in a cubic yard, so that equates to about 1.06 billion gallons -- almost 100 times the size of the Exxon Valdez spill of 11 million gallons in 1989.
We tried to drive back to the spill site but TVA officials sent us to a media corral to sit and wait. We tried various tactics to get past TVA security, including offering to give a ride to some local residents walking home carrying heavy bags of groceries - but no luck. TVA made them walk back to their coal-ash-covered homes.
After 20 minutes of waiting, we left the media corral and drove around
on back roads to try and access the spill scene. We found a great photo
op at a roadside pulloff: a local Kingston resident had tacked a
homemade cardboard sign reading "CLEAN COAL?" to a tree. 
When we tried to take pictures of the sign, we were quickly accosted by an agitated TVA official wearing agreen vest, who demanded we leave immediately. We drove on to the next checkpoint, where we were detained for almost an hour. The TVA official called TVA police and demanded that we be arrested. Fortunately the local ABC News affiliate (Channel 6) was there to capture the whole scene of our detention, and we were eventually allowed to leave.
TVA personnel appear to be under great strain, which is understandable -- but in my opinion they over-reacted. All we were doing was taking photos.
I worked on the Martin County Kentucky coal slurry spill in 2000, when the accident-prone coal company Massey Energy dumped 300 million gallons of thick black coal slurry into two streams, Coldwater Creek and Wolf Creek in eastern Kentucky.
In that case, the local Martin County officials kept the media out by blockading the public roads for "public safety." The story was effectively squelched and most people in America never heard how bad it was. I helped to publicize that disaster, but it occurred before the age of bloggers, independent media, and videos on line. Thanks to an army of cyber-activists, America is now well aware of what has happened at the TVA plant in Kingston.
It's hard to comprehend the enormous size of this spill. TVA's coal ash mountain was stacked over 50 feet high -- as high as a 5 story building.
If a dump truck can hold 20 cubic yards of dirt and ash, it will take 265,000 truck loads to haul away all the ash (they are taking it back to the power plant). If they fill one dump truck trip every 5 minutes and work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, it will take about 2.5 years to clean up the spill. TVA has been telling the media it will be cleaned up in about 6 weeks - this is a ludicrous claim.
There is an emergency meeting of the Kingston City Council on Sunday at 4:30, open to the public. The City of Kingston will begin the process of formulating its official reaction and response to the massive TVA fly ash spill. Everyone who wishes to speak or comment will have the opportunity to speak at the public meeting.
The Kingston Community Center is located at 201 Patton Ferry Rd, Kingston, TN -- phone (865) 376-9476.
7 Comments so far
Show Alltheinitiate
Ya know, that is the problem. People just don't know. So many people do not pay attention. But then, when they are made aware, they have an attitude of, well, what are ya gonna do. They through up their hands and accept the shit handed down from above. Many people have had no real control over the direction of their lives. Even if they began to try to have a decisive, and motivated beginning when young, eventually they give up, because life throws so many wrenches (or boulders or...) in their path. So how can you motivate people to take action about big corporate or government abuse? They feel that any thing they would do is futile. When i go protest in my little town, they ask, What do you think you will accomplish, No body cares about the little town of -------. But of course i keet going. I read a piece from my favorite magazine. There's a guy that would protest at the white house almost everyday for years, with a lit candle for peace. After a long time the secret police realized he was harmless and were not so panicked. But when asked why he kept protesting so much for so long, he wasn't going to change the world. He replied "I don't do it to change the world, I do it so the world won't change me. IN OTHER WORDS, WHEN WE LET THE POWERFUL SQUASH US INTO ACCEPTANCE, WE LET THEM CHANGE US. KEEP FIGHTING TO THE BETTER END( YEAH, I'm a Scorpio).
Nanoo
Your right lino, just checked the first story on this environmental disaster where there are 3 comments. Here now, 5 whoppee. Damn right somebodies overlooked a major. Do you really think you can trust the EPA? Didn't they tell the 911 crew that the air was alright. What a shame for the people and wildlife affected by this.
tva and epa will continue to lose credibility as this unfolds. next summer, at someone's favorite fishing hole along the tennessee river, a three-eyed fish will be landed. a year after that, the results of arsenic and mercury poisoning will begin to show up in the procreators who are beholden to the river valley as their primary life support. and on it goes. yet by then, tva's clean coal program will be so entrenched in stupid america's psyche that this debacle, like the exxon valdez, will be nothing more than a past-tense event.
shameful are the daily pontificators here on cd who fail to recognize the severity of this situation.
When I was a child, my family would travel,
To western Kentucky, where my parents were born.
And there's a backwards old town that's often remembered.
So many times that my memories are worn.
And Daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg county,
Down by the Green River, where Paradise lay.
"Well I'm sorry, my son, but you're too late in askin'."
"Mr. Peabody's coal train has hauled it away."
Well, sometimes we'd travel right down the Green River,
To the abandoned old prison down by Aidrie Hill.
Where the air smelled like snakes: we'd shoot with our pistols,
But empty pop bottles was all we would kill.
And Daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg county,
Down by the Green River, where Paradise lay.
"Well I'm sorry, my son, but you're too late in askin'."
"Mr. Peabody's coal train has hauled it away."
Then the coal company came, with the world's largest shovel,
And they tortured the timber and stripped all the land.
Well, they dug for their coal till the land was forsaken.
Then they wrote it all down as the progress of man.
And Daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg county,
Down by the Green River, where Paradise lay.
"Well I'm sorry, my son, but you're too late in askin'."
"Mr. Peabody's coal train has hauled it away."
When I die, let my ashes float down the Green River.
Let my soul roll on up to the Rochester dam.
I'll be halfway to Heaven with Paradise waitin',
Just five miles away from wherever I am.
And Daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg county,
Down by the Green River, where Paradise lay.
"Well I'm sorry, my son, but you're too late in askin'."
"Mr. Peabody's coal train has hauled it away
>>John Prine
A song decades old yet as pertinent today.
tmullins:
Every time I see one of your posts,melancholy sets in.
I was raised in Wheeling,WVa.but have been here in Wisconsin for 45 years.Wheeling is still my home and because of poor health,I'll not see it again.I've adjusted to that,but can't deal with the horrible things going on there.
If my grandchilren visit there,will they be asking where is the beautiful Oglebay City Park?Well kids,after the energy barons levelled most of the mountains south of here they travelled north.
I recommend the movie Matewan,very well acted.And there's a dirge in the film that might soften the hearts of the few right-wingers who post on CD making fun of "hillbillies".
Every time I post melancholy sets in, but Change is coming from the bottom up in Appalachia. http://www.wisecountyissues.com We don't want THE COAL INDUSTRIES prosperity anymore. Hope is on the horizon !
Nothing to see here folks, this is the new hybrid clean coal technology, the fish froze to death.
Problem here is TVA will be more concerned about its 'image ' than what this has done to the environment. http://www.wisecountyissues.com Hannity's America sure ain't My America !
Bush is a TOXIC TERRORIST !