Dirty Coal: Will The Corporate Media Ignore This As Well?

In the wake of the most catastrophic environmental disaster in US history caused by TVA, the corporate media remained silent, with a few whimpers.

Will they ignore this one as well?

And will we continue to delude ourselves that coal is other than DIRTY ENERGY?

The failure of the new Congress to act and regulate this industry will define the effects of the political contributions they have received.

NRDC reports --

TVA Coal Ash Spills Keep Coming

On the heels of another coal ash spill this morning at a TVA plant in Alabama comes word of a second waste pond rupture in East Tennessee about 60 miles from the Kingston disaster.
The Tennessean is reporting that state environmental officials have discovered "black, foul-smelling" muddy sludge flowing into the Ocoee River, world-renowned for whitewater sports and site of Olympic competition during the 1996 Atlanta games.
Apparently, the TVA had no permits and hadn't coordinated with the state environmental regulators about this particular coal ash "wet" dump.
The paper notes the extensive effort over many years to clean the site and the Ocoee River. Fortunately, no injuries are reported but this latest spill has left dead fish in its wake. The fish population, largely absent for 100 years, had been starting to flourish in this part of the Ocoee.
The story quotes a spokesman with the Tennessee Scenic Rivers Association saying that if this dam rupture "had happened during the summer when the river was full of people that could have been a real disaster."
Disaster alright, one after another. Which dam is gonna break next, TVA?

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Below, is an impressive video considering that TVA allowed this environmental catastrophe and failed to install a turbidity curtain to ensure the contamination would be contained and drinking water would remain safe.

Hundreds of Coal Ash Dumps Lack Regulation

The coal ash pond that ruptured and sent a billion gallons of toxic sludge across 300 acres of East Tennessee last month was only one of more than 1,300 similar dumps across the United States — most of them unregulated and unmonitored — that contain billions more gallons of fly ash and other byproducts of burning coal.

Like the one in Tennessee, most of these dumps, which reach up to 1,500 acres, contain heavy metals like arsenic, lead, mercury and selenium, which are considered by the Environmental Protection Agency to be a threat to water supplies and human health. Yet they are not subject to any federal regulation, which experts say could have prevented the spill, and there is little monitoring of their effects on the surrounding environment.

...coal combustion products because of the growing amount of them being produced each year — 131 million tons in 2007, up from less than 90 million tons in 1990.

...held in huge piles in 46 states, near cities like Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Tampa, Fla., and on the shores of Lake Erie, Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River.
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In 2007, an E.P.A. report identified 63 sites in 26 states where the water was contaminated by heavy metals from such dumps, including three other Tennessee Valley Authority dumps. Environmental advocacy groups have submitted at least 17 additional cases that they say should be added to that list.
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...a judge approved a $54 million class-action settlement against Constellation Power Generation after it had dumped coal ash for more than a decade in a sand and gravel pit near Gambrills, Md., about 20 miles south of Baltimore, contaminating wells.
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And Town of Pines, Ind., a hamlet about 40 miles east of Chicago, was declared a Superfund site after wells there were found to be contaminated by ash dumped in a landfill and used to make roads starting in 1983.
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In Chesapeake, Va., high levels of lead, arsenic and other contaminants were found last year in the groundwater beneath a golf course sculptured with 1.5 million tons of fly ash, the same type of coal ash involved in the Tennessee spill. The golf course opened in 2007.
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Only the Dirty Coal Industry could make such outrageous statements as these -- .

The industry takes the position that states can regulate the disposal of coal ash on their own, and it has come up with a voluntary plan to close some gaps, like in the monitoring of older disposal sites.

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“There probably isn’t a need for a comprehensive regulatory approach to coal ash in light of what the states have and our action plan,” said Jim Roewer, the executive director of the Utility Solid Wastes Activity Group.
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Bear in mind --
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State laws have prevented these states from enacting legislation that would protect them from this type of catastrophe and jeopardizes their safety --
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The federal failure to regulate the waste has put 23 states -- including Tennessee -- in a special bind, since their statutes have "no more stringent" provisions prohibiting them from enacting standards stricter than those found in federal law. Without federal action, those states can't regulate coal combustion waste disposal beyond the few obviously inadequate safeguards that now exist.
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Maybe it's time for those states to change their laws to protect their citizens.
30 Times The Size of Exxon Valdez #5: EMPTY PROMISE
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The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works held a hearing on January 8, 2009, at which Tom Kilgore, President and CEO, Tennessee Valley Authority, testified.