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Cancer rates among people living near coal ash ponds are “disturbingly high,” according to Environmental Integrity Project and Earthjustice, nonprofit organizations that studied Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data from 210 coal ash ponds across the United States. The data is compiled in a report titled, “Coming Clean: What EPA Knows About the Dangers of Coal Ash.”
Problems continue to mount for the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). This week a federal judge upheld an order handed down in January that the TVA accelerate its billion-dollar program to clean up four of its coal plants in Tennessee and Alabama so the plants could stop polluting the air in North Carolina, according to the Associated Press/Forbes.
Coal ash, like the 1.1 billion gallons of the toxic mess that spilled on to 300 acres of rural east Tennessee property destroying homes and damaging property in its wake, is commonly sold by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to companies at a profit and used in concrete for roads, bridges, concrete blocks for buildings, material for wallboard, granules for roofing shingles, grit for sandblasters and filler material for recreation areas such as ball fields and industrial parks, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution/Associated Press. Coal ash is also used in to supplement crop soil to enhance growth and help soil retain water.
In the midst of a massive, $1 million-a day-cleanup effort and under the threat of numerous lawsuits, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) today announced organization changes and staff assignments “to ensure the effective, long-term management of the recovery effort at Kingston Fossil Plant,” according to the Chattanoogan.
By Shaila Dewan, New York Times
A coal ash spill in eastern Tennessee that experts were already calling the largest environmental disaster of its kind in the United States is more than three times as large as initially estimated, according to an updated survey by the Tennessee Valley Authority.
By Dave Burdick
December 30, 2008
The online environmental community is abuzz with reports of all kinds about the coal ash sludge spill in Tennessee, ranging from first-hand accounts to health concerns to worries about coal in general. Twitter in particular has been a place where people have been posting news stories and concerns.
A local blog also posted before and after photos of the affected area.
Joe Romm blogs at ClimateProgress that the muck has a lot of people worried about how easy it would be for another such spill to happen:
Coal ash deposits in the USA are now under renewed scrutiny after a giant spill just before Christmas released 5.4 million cubic yards of toxic sludge into Tennessee waterways. Water tests near the spill from the Kingston Fossil Plant showed elevated levels of lead and thallium, which can cause birth defects and nervous and reproductive system disorders. The spill muddied the waters in the Emory river and is flowing into tributaries of the Tennessee River – the water supply for Chattanooga and millions of people living downstream in Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky.
So now a big question mark hangs over the hundreds of coal plants all across the country which store their fly ash in unlined embankments and ponds — like the one that failed last week. Most are situated near rivers that supply water needed by the coal plants to operate.
The NY Times reported that in the US, coal plants produce 129 million tons of postcombustion byproducts a year. It’s the second-largest waste stream in the country, after municipal solid waste, and it’s storage and handling is unregulated. Who knew?
Source: Huffington Post
