Tennessee Valley - "Clean Coal" ?

On Mon., Dec. 22, at 1:00 am, a coal slurry impoundment at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston coal fired power plant in Harriman, Tennessee spilled at least 525 million gallons of toxic coal ash into the Tennessee River and surrounding areas.

We need to make sure that the national news media give this story the coverage that it deserves.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

The Kingston spill is over 40 times bigger than the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska, if local news accounts are correct. This is a huge environmental disaster of epic proportions; approximately 525 million gallons of nasty black coal ash flowed into tributaries of the Tennessee River - the water supply for Chattanooga TN and millions of people living downstream in Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky.

In Oct. 2000, the Big Branch coal slurry spill dumped 306 million gallons of toxic coal slurry down 100 miles of waterways (http://www.nrdc.org/onearth/03spr/coal1.asp). An EPA official called it "one of the worst environmental disasters in the southeastern United States." And this spill is *at least 70% bigger*.

A CT&E Environmental Services analysis of coal slurry from a sample taken in Dec. 2001 downstream from the Big Branch disaster found levels of lead 400 times higher than the EPA limit, beryllium 160 times the EPA limit, etc., etc. Coal contains huge amounts of heavy metals, and when coal is burned, the organic matter burns off, but many of the nasty chemicals stick around, in higher concentrations. Also, coal is “washed” using some really nasty chemicals, which are also left over in coal slurry. The bottom line: coal slurry is really, really toxic stuff.

Ironically, on the same day as this massive spill, 39 groups wrote a letter to Obama asking that he overturn a pending Bush administration federal rule change that would ease regulations on the disposal of coal waste (http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08357/936894-100.stm). There’s been a campaign for many years against Massey’s Shumate coal sludge impoundment in Naoma, WV, which sits 150 feet above the Marsh Fork Elementary School, and holds 2.8 billion gallons (a group in West Virginia has been collecting pennies in order to save enough money to relocate the school (http://www.penniesofpromise.org/)). This disaster proves that regulations around coal slurry impoundments need to be tightened, not loosened.

But more important than that, this disaster clearly demonstrates what we've been saying for years: coal ain’t clean. It’s really, really dirty. It’s dirty from cradle to grave. And most of the time, the toxic aftermath of the coal industry is hidden in slurry ponds, or pumped into abandoned coal mines, and its effects are secondary and very difficult to measure. But disasters like this demonstrate what the coal industry doesn’t want us to know: there’s no clean way to burn coal.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Even though this is an environmental disaster of epic proportions, thus far the story has gotten only limited national media coverage. We need to make sure that the national news media get on this story, that they stay on it, and that they hold the coal industry accountable.

There's a lot of reasons that I could speculate about why this is happening. One is that it's two days before Christmas - but the Big Branch spill in 2000 got very little coverage, too.

Another possible reason is that coal slurry ponds - as well as mountaintop removal and other incredibly destructive coal industry practices - are located in Appalachia for a reason: because the coal industry thinks that nobody cares about Appalachia. Appalachia is the poorest region in the country - and the coal industry thinks that that gives them a license to turn it into an environmental dumping ground. We need to prove them wrong.

PLEASE, please help publicize this awful tragedy. Forward this group to your friends and allies. Write a blogpost about it. Call local media outlets, and urge them to cover it. Talk to friends who are members of environmental groups. Or if you're near a facility of the Tennessee Valley Authority, you could even organize a protest.

YOU TUBE links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGmVCABMRRQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXM_mezFLak


And if you find a news story or write a blogpost, please post the link on this page.

Help send a clear message to the coal industry: we've had enough of your dirty coal.
Contact Info
Website:
http://www.appvoices.org/index.php?/fron...
Location:
714 Swan Pond Rd.
Harriman, TN