Not-so-clean coal disaster in Tennessee

I saw the news report on this as well - said the "pond" that had been taking the ash from the power plant had been used as a dump site this way since the 1950s!!!  Just imagine the potential for the build up of levels of mercury, arsenic, and such - and the flood covered between 300 and 400 acres, much of the area under a few feet of flow!  Can you say "superfund site"... that land is really damaged by this event.

One home was knocked off it's foundation while several others also suffered damage.  Luckily nobody was killed.

Yikes....is there any news on what they're going to do for clean up?  The long term human and environmental health effects could be...well...they'd be bad.

Climate change will be happened due to release of the carbon emissions from coal-fired plants.The U.S government has a deal to produce coal "Clean" to reduce the pollution from climate.

Follow the Link:lincenergy.us/

I hate to say it, but this is a win/lose situation.  I think it is atrocious and am very sickened by this, it makes me want to grab the CEO's head and rub his nose in it!

I have been fighting the myth of clean coal in Arkansas all year.  We have been battling SWEPCO, trying to make the Governor make a move toward moratorium on new coal power plants...

This is where there is actually, believe it or not, a bright side to this incident...MAYBE NOW THEY WILL LISTEN TO US!  People are so close minded when it comes to the environmental issues, especially when all they can see is new jobs for a year.  They just never seem to understand the consequences, but I think that this event might open a few eyes, and I hate to say "I told you so!"

I also can't believe the audacity of the company to deny that this spill has any connection to the thousands of dead fish in a nearby tributary.  Come on!  And now they say that the toxins are below harmful levels to humans...aren't we kind of forgetting about the rest of the ecosystem??

Have you guys seen the new "no such thing as clean coal" commercials?  It put a smile on my face :)  I couldn't believe it actually played on one of our local stations!

This one doesn't, it came out a little before this happened, but I'm sure they are working on more!

http://www.thisisreality.org/#/?p=facility

It's kind of amusing actually...

I hadn't seen that commercial before.  Pretty cool that it got played in your neck of the woods, srj.  Have you seen this coal parody?  It cracks me up every time.

In other news, I came across this Reuters article about the coal ash spill:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Preliminary water tests from rivers near a huge coal ash spill in Tennessee show elevated levels of pollutants such as mercury and lead, a environmental group said on Friday.

"We're concerned that the water poses a greater risk to residents in the area than has been revealed so far," said Matt Wasson, a program director at Appalachian Voices, a environmental group that coordinated the testing of the water with scientists from Appalachian State University.

i cant quite believe this stuff

Hundreds of coal ash dumps in the U.S. lack regulation

www.iht.com/articles/2009/01/07/america/07sludge.php

no regulation???????

in britain, its one of the most thoroughly regulated industries!

i suppose the aberfan disaster in 66 made us pull our socks up and set the trend. also being more densely populated, and having a more centralised administration, things like water and air quality problems show up sooner and get regulated sooner and more thoroughly.