News Tagged ‘Georgia’

TVA enjoys record-breaking energy sales

increased salesThe Tennessee Valley Authority () is enjoying record-breaking sales of its energy, setting records in demand for the 7-day period that ended Sunday. Total weekly energy use throughout the ’s 7-state region was more than 200 gigawatt hours higher than the previous record, set August 12, 2007. Total weekly energy use was recorded at 4.633 gigawatt hours, another record for the nation’s largest utility. serves more than 9 million customers in Alabama, , Mississippi, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.

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Those near coal-firing plants at risk for serious health problems

Duke env school logoCommunities and aquatic ecosystems near coal-firing plants are at risk for serious health problems from the toxic metals and radioactivity stored in ponds at the plants even if the facilities cease to burn its coal ash, according to a new study conducted by researchers at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment and Pratt School of Engineering, the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the Georgia Institute of Technology.

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Pennsylvania says no to TVA coal ash storage

Coal ash that poured from the Tennessee Valley Authority () Kingston, , Fossil Plant onto an east community last December and recovered by cleanup crews is far too toxic to be stored in Pennsylvania’s coal mines, according to officials in that state. Authorities issued a statement saying it has strict regulations for the material to be stored there.

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Poor, black counties to receive coal ash from TVA cleanup

Criticism continues to fly as the Tennessee Valley Authority () labors on with its extensive and expensive coal ash cleanup effort following the December 22, 2008, spill from its Kingston, , fossil fuel plant. A breach in an impoundment pond dumped more than a billion gallons of on to a neighboring community, destroying homes and damaging property in its wake. The Institute for Southern Studies now finds that the counties where the utility will be dumping much of the retrieved from the community in which it was spilled are largely populated by African Americans and have high poverty rates.

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Scientist develops new product from coal ash

cenocell sem md 100x100 Scientist develops new product from coal ashAs one east community struggles to recover from the devastating spillage of coal ash from a nearby Tennessee Valley Authority () coal-burning plant on to its land and waterways, one man is working to find better uses for the waste leftover from coal burning. Mulalo Doyoyo, an assistant professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has developed a new structural material from and bottom ash that is strong and lightweight enough to serve as an alternative to cement in concrete.

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Research consortium to guide coal ash cleanup, health monitoring

orau 100x90 Research consortium to guide coal ash cleanup, health monitoringOak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU), a -based independent university research group, is working out a contract with the Tennessee Valley Authority () to guide the cleanup efforts and the health monitoring of residents in and around the site of last December’s coal ash spill, according to the Miami Herald/Associated Press.

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Will customers have to pay for TVA’s coal ash disaster?

The Tennessee Valley Authority () may turn to its residential customer base to help pay for the escalating costs to clean up the widespread damage caused when one of its coal ash ponds failed last December, pouring more than a billion gallons of toxic ash and sludge onto 300 acres of rural east , according to the Jackson Sun.

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