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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.
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has been given permission to dredge the Emory River to remove ash that spilled into it after the utility’s coal ash pond failed last December and poured more than a billion gallons of toxic material on to 300 acres of east Tennessee property, according to MSNBC. The dredging is part of the TVA’s $1-million-a-day effort to clean up the massive mess, and was one of the items detailed in the utility’s cleanup plan aimed to return the community to “as good, if not better (condition) than they were before.”
It’s been more than two months now since the east Tennessee coal ash spill that dumped 1.1 billion gallons of toxic material on to 300 acres of land, and residents there are pausing to take a deep breath – only to realize they’re having problems doing so. According to the Associated Press, residents living near the spill site are “experiencing breathing problems, stress and anxiety.”
Florida homeowners have filed a class action suit against the manufacturers of a Chinese drywall company for using toxic fly ash in materials used to construct their homes. The fly ash was reportedly purchased from a Chinese power plant and used to make the drywall.
Photographer Shawn Poynter and other photographers compiled for the Daily Yonder a photo slideshow of images captured following December’s massive coal ash spill that destroyed homes and damaged more than 300 acres in east Tennessee. The images show just how devastating our nation’s largest coal-ash spill was.
Coal ash ponds similar to the one at the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) plant in Kingston, Tennessee that failed and poured more than a billion gallons of toxic material on to east Tennessee property, are located all across the country, which has some people asking, “Can a coal ash spill happen here?” according to the Gillette News Record.
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) repeatedly told Penny Dodson that she and her 18-month-old grandson Evan would be safe. They live near the utility’s Kingston, Tennessee, plant where in December a coal ash pond failed and poured more than a billion gallons of toxic material on to 300 acres of rural property and into Emory River. But when Evan started having trouble breathing, Penny took him to the doctor, who tested him for heavy metals.
December’s devastating coal ash spill that dumped 1.1 billion pounds of toxic material on to an east Tennessee neighborhood and into Emory River has prompted some people to question why coal ash ponds and landfills are not more heavily regulated by the federal government, according to iStockAnalyst. Last week, the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources held a legislative hearing to address a proposed bill that would set uniform design, engineering and inspection standards of impoundment ponds such as the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) failed pond that caused the massive spill.
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.
December’s Kingston, Tennessee, coal ash spill that dumped 1.1 billion pounds of toxic material on to 300 acres of rural east Tennessee property, destroying homes and damaging property in its wake, continues to raise concerns for those living near similar treatment plants in other states, especially Indiana, according to The Bloomington Alternative. Indiana stores more coal ash in manmade impoundments than any other state, which has locals worried what damage would be caused if one of its coal ash lagoons failed and dumped toxic material onto nearby land.
