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As the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ponders how waste from coal-firing plants should be classified, the debate on how best to regulate the toxic material heats up. Here is one more view on The Coal Ash Case, from The New York Times.
The hits just keep on coming for the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). First, a massive spill from its east Tennessee coal-burning site results in a near-$1 billion cleanup, millions in payouts to the county it nearly destroyed, and mounting lawsuits from parties injured by the spill. Now, a Second Circuit Court of Appeals has reinstated global warming lawsuits brought by eight states, New York City, and three land trusts against the TVA and other large utility companies, which seek to limit their carbon dioxide emissions, according to The Australian Business.
It will bring millions of dollars of civic improvements to the tattered community of Roane County, Tenn., and will generate much-needed revenue and jobs for the poor, black Perry County in Alabama. But the toxic-laden coal ash sludge that is bringing so much benefit to the two Southern communities comes with a steep price – a serious risk of life-threatening health conditions and the looming threat of devastating environmental disaster.
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has agreed to spend $43 million on projects to improve Roane County, Tenn., the area that was devastated both physically and from a public relations standpoint when the TVA’s Kingston plant’s coal ash pond breached, sending a 1.1 billion gallon wave of toxic material on to 300 acres of a local community.
Coal ash recovered from an east Tennessee community where the toxic material spilled after an impoundment pond breached at the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) coal-firing plant in Kingston, Tenn., is already being shipped to landfills in other states, creating jobs and bringing money to impoverished counties, but residents of an Alabama community receiving the shipments aren’t pleased.
Following protests by environmentalists to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has upgraded four of its coal ash sites to a high hazard rating, according to the New York Times. The news comes a month after the EPA released a list of 44 “high hazard” coal ash dump sites across the country, meaning if a dam failure occurred, it would put human life at risk. Utilities were asked to evaluate their own sites. Coincidentally, none of the TVA’s 12 coal ash storage sites made the list.
More than half of the toxic coal ash spilled on to an east Tennessee community can be stored in a landfill in Perry County, Alabama, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) will begin immediately shipping the coal ash by rail.
Four conditions created extra stress and movement in the massive coal ash pond at the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Kingston, Tennessee plant and caused the impoundment to breach last December, sending a wave of toxic material on to 300 acres of nearby property, according to a study conducted by Los Angeles-based AECOM USA Inc. and released Thursday. Those factors include high water content of the ash, the height of the pile, the construction of sloping dikes over wet ash around the landfill, and a hidden layer of fly ash “slime” hidden 40 to 85 feet below the section of pond that breached.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has promised to make good on a promise it made nine years ago to issue regulations for coal ash storage. The announcement comes more than two months after a Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) impoundment pond failed and dumped more than a billion gallons of toxic coal ash on to 300 acres of east Tennessee property, destroying homes and damaging land in its wake.
A team of scientists from Duke University has been testing the land and water in and around the massive coal ash spill in Kingston, Tennessee. Their results not only underscore the precarious nature of coal ash retaining ponds, but the potentially far-reaching and long-lasting impact such accidents have on the environment, wildlife, and human health.
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