Protection from Dirty Coal Ash!

It’s been over five years since a massive coal ash dump in Tennessee burst through a dam, destroyed dozens of homes, poisoned thousands of fish and wildlife and flattened 300 acres of riverfront property. Since then, toxic coal ash has continued to contaminate our waters, threaten nearby communities and kill local wildlife.

An Historic Agreement on Coal Ash

The long wait is over: EPA agrees to finalize waste rule this year

A rally in Asheville, NC, calling for strong protections against coal ash contamination of waterways.

Late yesterday, the Department of Justice on behalf of the EPA lodged a consent decree with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that requires the EPA to publish a final rule addressing the disposal of coal ash by Dec. 19, 2014. The settlement came as a result of a lawsuit brought by 10 public interest groups and the Moapa Band of Paiutes against the EPA for its failure to review and revise its regulations pertaining to coal ash. The settlement does not dictate the content of the final regulation, but it confirms that the agency will finalize a rule by a date certain after years of delay.
If there has ever been a time to celebrate a victory on coal ash over the last three decades, today is the day.

The Kingston coal ash spill in December 2008. (TVA Photo)

EPA’s coal ash rulemaking was triggered by the largest toxic waste spill in U.S. history when a billion gallons of coal ash burst through a dam at the TVA Kingston Fossil Plant in Roane County, Tennessee. While damage to health and the environment had been occurring for decades at hundreds of sites throughout the nation, the headline-making disaster brought a commitment in 2009 from then-Administrator Lisa Jackson to establish federal disposal standards within the year.
But, amazingly, the catastrophic collapse of the TVA dam was not enough to push EPA to complete its rulemaking. Only after Earthjustice and other public health and environmental groups sued did the EPA commit to a deadline for a final rule and break the logjam of delay and dangerous deferral.
This consent decree ends the inexcusable and destructive 30-year delay in establishing rules for safe disposal of the nation’s second largest industrial waste stream. No other industry in this country, save the mining industry, has a license to dump toxic waste in our water at the massive scale enjoyed by our coal-burning power plants. The industry estimates that they have generated 3 billion tons of coal ash since the beginning of the last century. Not an ounce has been subject to disposal regulations that ensure its safe, long-term disposal. This, we hope, will change in 2014.

While the consent decree sets an enforceable deadline for the publication of the coal ash rule, it does not dictate its content. The EPA still has discretion to finalize either of the two proposals it published in June 2010.

The benefits of a strong coal ash rule for our health and environment are immense—and this ruling comes none too soon to protect the air, water and safety of communities living near more than 1,000 massive coal ash impoundments, ponds, dry landfills and other coal ash dumpsites.

[CLICK ON LINK BELOW TO VIEW GRAPHIC]

Known* cases of coal ash contamination and spills:

 

Contaminated Site

Spill

Contaminated Site and Spill

View Map Data

* These cases of documented water contamination are likely to be only a small percentage of the coal ash-contaminated sites in the U.S. Most coal ash landfills and ponds do not conduct monitoring, so the majority of water contamination goes undetected. According to U.S. EPA, there are over 1,000 operating coal ash landfills and ponds and many hundreds of "retired" coal ash disposal sites.

Coal ash and sludge laden with toxic metals, including arsenic, chromium, lead, mercury and selenium, are dumped in unlined and unmonitored lagoons and landfills and stacked stories-high behind earthen dams without proper engineering, inspection or maintenance. In many states, where millions of tons of coal are burned for electricity, there are simply regulations controlling the disposal of this toxic waste. For decades, communities have waited for protection from the waterborne and airborne chemicals that cause cancer, birth defects, neurological injury, and other diseases. The EPA made a very grave error when it failed to establish nationwide protections decades ago. The dumping of toxic ash nationwide has contaminated more than 200 rivers, streams, lakes and sources of underground drinking water.

 

In exchange for significant health, safety and environmental benefits, most power plants will pay a pittance. The EPA estimated that even under the most stringent rule, electricity prices would not rise more than one percent, even if all costs were passed on to the consumer. Both of EPA’s proposed rules, under subtitles C and D, will allow the continued operation of existing coal ash landfills, and both will require the eventual phase out of dangerous and leaking impoundments like the one that failed in Kingston, Tennessee. Those utilities that have managed their coal ash in the most dangerous, antiquated and irresponsible manner will have to make a larger investment to convert their dumping operations to safe practices. For utilities that invested in safer disposal practices, such as lined, engineered and monitored landfills, the cost of the rule will be negligible—even if the EPA regulates coal ash as a special waste under subtitle C.

The EPA’s primary statutory duty under RCRA is clear—to minimize the threat to human health and the environment from the disposal of solid waste. The agency’s final coal ash rule must meet these goals by phasing out dangerous coal ash ponds as soon as possible, establishing an enforceable baseline of engineering and disposal standards applicable in all states that protect both air and water, and establishing federal authority to ensure that such standards are timely instituted and effectively enforced. The coal ash rule must protect the nation’s most vulnerable communities and give all citizens a meaningful role in the siting of disposal facilities. Law, science, and sound public policy dictate that the EPA should finalize a subtitle C rule, regulating coal ash as a “special waste” under RCRA. It remains to be seen, however, whether considerations other than protection of health and the environment will take precedence in this politically charged rulemaking.

For now, we celebrate this historic agreement to finalize the rule by year’s end. A final rule marks a huge step forward for the health and safety of all American communities.


http://earthjustice.org/blog/2014-january/celebrating-an-historic-agreement-on-coal-ash?utm_source=Convio


 

Fukushima-type disaster inevitable in U.S.?

It's interesting to consider the history of the Tennessee Valley Authority in light of the article below. Although TVA hasn't been focused on here, Appearances lead one to believe they don't give a damn about people, the environment or safety.


Fukushima-type disaster inevitable in U.S.?
ByArmen Keteyian

(CBS News) The Nuclear Regulatory Commission was to meet Tuesday to discuss sweeping new safety recommendations, after having just finished inspecting all 104 U.S. nuclear plants in the wake of Japan's Fukushima disaster.


On "The Early Show," CBS News Chief Investigative Correspondent Armen Keteyian spotlighted one of those facilities' post-Fukushima inspection reports.


Watts Bar, in Spring City, Tenn., is the last nuclear plant to be licensed in the U.S., and a textbook study of the pros and cons of nuclear power. It provides electricity to some 9 million people in seven states, yet is dogged with a long history of safety issues and whistle-blower lawsuits -- including six by a 71-year-old great-grandmother named Ann Harris.


If you walk through the front door of Harris's house in rural Tennessee, you'll meet one of the most unlikely and feared advocates of nuclear safety.


Harris said she "began as a clerk in instrumentation engineering at Watts Bar in construction on Unit 1. And I could barely spell 'nuclear' when I went to work."


What was the turning point in her work? "Basically," she replied, "the books are being cooked. People are saying things, they swear under oath it's been done, and it hadn't been done."


When Harris refused to sign a multimillion-dollar construction contract riddled with errors, she said, Tennessee Valley Authority executives told her that her career was over. Instead, it sparked a 28-year crusade devoted to preventing a nuclear accident.


Harris said, "You can see a Fukushima happening here in the U.S."


So it's not a matter of 'if,' it's a matter of -


"When," Harris finished the sentence.


CBS News has obtained a copy of a National Regulatory Commission (NRC) "Post Fukushima" Watts Bar report, dated May 2011. CBS News had two nuclear engineers look at the report. One gave Watts Bar a "D-" and called it "appalling." The other cited what he called more than 40 "disturbing findings" during a 40-hour inspection, including:

A lack of emergency responder training


Faulty control panels


Malfunctioning communications equipment


Issues with portable backup diesel generators


We asked David Lochbaum, a member of the Union of Concerned Scientists why the NRC isn't pounding on the door of Watts Bar, saying, "Look we need these problems fixed?"


"I think the fact that there hasn't been a major reactor accident in the United States for over three decades allows the industry and the NRC to become complacent," Lochbaum said.


Are they just gambling, taking one huge risk with people's lives with these reactors, particularly Watts Bar?


Lochbaum replied, "In some respects, it's the biggest poker game in the country. You're playing high-stakes poker with American lives."


But Bill McCollum, chief operating officer of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), the government-owned electricity corporation, said of Lochbaum's conclusion, "I think that's absurd."


McCollum says the NRC's findings are far-outweighed by safeguards built into Watts Bar.


McCollum said, "We're certainly gonna take those seriously, correct those issues. And then, even beyond that, our own reviews of the events in Japan have shown us that we have opportunities to bring in additional backup equipment that will make our response even more robust."


Tucked into the foothills of Eastern Tennessee, Watts Bar took 23 years to build, at a cost of nearly $8 billion. It was shut down in the mid-1980s over an avalanche of safety issues. In 1986, one independent report alone documented 5,081 "concerns."


Roger Hannah, senior public affairs officer for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, told CBS News, "The NRC treats every single allegation very seriously. It doesn't matter what the source. It doesn't matter what the subject. We look at it, we screen those allegations. We have done that for years. All the allegations that were provided over the years at Watts Bar have been addressed in one way or another. If we had doubts about the ability of TVA to operate the Watts Bar plant safely, we would not allow that plant to operate."


So he'd shut it down?


Hannah replied, "Absolutely."


To that end, TVA executives gave CBS News an extensive tour of Watts Bar's reactor and its twin, Watts Bar 2, scheduled to go online next fall.


They showed us diesel-powered generators -- one of four critical back-up systems to keep water flowing to the reactor, preventing a meltdown. They also showed CBS News the main control room, said to be able to shut down the reactor in less than three seconds.


You'll have to pardon Ann Harris if she's heard it all before. She's won a record six whistle-blower lawsuits against Watts Bar over issues like millions of feet of faulty electrical cable, and says she's paid a price for speaking out.


There have certainly been attempts at intimidation, recrimination and really, threats on your life?


Harris responded, "Yes. They ran me off the road. They wired my car for firebombing. They dropped the universal joint out of my car."


Harris left the TVA in 1997, but she's still taking late-night calls from whistle-blowers, still driven to hold the TVA and NRC accountable, standing square in the cross-hairs of the nuclear power debate.


In Part Two of our report, we'll take a close look at the very personal impact of a culture war at Watts Bar.

Nuclear Power

Storms knock out 3 TVA nuclear reactors --Units among 23 U.S. reactors similar in design to Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant 28 Apr 2011 Severe storms and tornadoes moving through the U.S. Southeast dealt a severe blow to the Tennessee Valley Authority on Wednesday, causing three nuclear reactors in Alabama to shut and knocking out 11 high-voltage power lines, the utility and regulators said. All three units at TVA's 3,274-megawatt Browns Ferry nuclear plant in Alabama tripped about 5:30 EDT (2230 GMT) after losing outside power to the plant, a spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said. The Browns Ferry units are among 23 U.S. reactors that are similar in design to the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan where backup generators were swept away in the tsunami that followed the massive earthquake on March 11.



Radiation Readings in Fukushima Reactor Rise to Highest Since Crisis Began --Tepco plan to flood containment vessel of reactor No. 1 with more water to speed emergency cooling efforts announced yesterday 'may not be possible now' 27 Apr 2011 Radiation readings at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi station rose to the highest since an earthquake and tsunami knocked out cooling systems, impeding efforts to contain the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl. Two robots sent into the reactor No. 1 building at the plant yesterday took readings as high as 1,120 millisierverts of radiation per hour, Junichi Matsumoto, a general manager at Tokyo Electric Power Co., said today.

Dirty tricks against activists

Interesting article. Isn't it strange how everything produces the Koch name and Dirty Coal?

SPECIAL REPORT - Well-connected law firm involved in dirty tricks against activists, journalists

By Sue Sturgis

After whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks announced back in 2009 that it was planning to dump internal Bank of America documents to the web, the financial giant turned to the U.S. Department of Justice for advice, according to recently leaked e-mails.

The DOJ reportedly referred the bank to Hunton & Williams, an international corporate law and lobbying firm with deep roots and management offices in Richmond, Va. Hunton & Williams in turn reached out to the Maryland firm HBGary Federal, inquiring last October about "a complete intelligence solution," according to a Wired report.

Thus began the plotting of a plan that -- thanks to those leaked e-mails -- has grabbed widespread media attention and raises troubling questions about corporate ethics.

As the Tech Herald first reported earlier this month, Hunton & Williams representatives held a meeting with officials from Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America on Dec. 3. That report was based on a tip from Crowdleaks.org, which in turn was working with e-mails that had been hacked from the e-mail account of Aaron Barr, CEO of technology security firm HBGary Federal, after Barr said the company was working on ways to exploit social media to spy on hackers.

To address the WikiLeaks threat to Bank of America, Hunton & Williams began working with HBGary Federal along with two other high-tech security firms -- Berico Technologies of Arlington, Va. and Palantir Technologies of Palo Alto, Calif. All three companies were formed during the security industry boom in the years following the 9/11 attacks. As Tech Herald reported:

"They basically want to sue them to put an injunction on releasing any data," an email between the three data intelligence firms said. "They want to present to the bank a team capable of doing a comprehensive investigation into the data leak."

Hunton and Williams would act as outside counsel on retainer, while Palantir would take care of network and insider threat investigations. For their part, Berico Technologies and HBGary Federal would analyze WikiLeaks.

"Apparently if they can show that WikiLeaks is hosting data in certain countries it will make prosecution easier," the email added.

At the same time, Hunton & Williams was also helping the U.S. Chamber of Commerce deal with its own challenges from activists. The law firm decided to get HBGary Federal, Berico and Palantir -- operating as a unit called "Team Themis" after the ancient Greek deity embodying divine law -- involved with that effort as well.

The security firms assembled a PowerPoint presentation that called for disrupting WikiLeaks supporters. "Feed the fuel between feuding groups," it said. "Disinformation. Create messages around actions to sabotage or discredit the opposing organization. Submit fake documents and then call out the error."

They also proposed targeting Salon reporter Glenn Greenwald, a former civil rights litigator who has written sympathetically about WikiLeaks. The PowerPoint presentation said that Greenwald's support for the organization "needs to be disrupted."

"These are established professionals that have a liberal bent," the document said, "but ultimately most of them if pushed will choose professional preservation over cause, such is the mentality of most business professionals."

Bank of America and the Chamber of Commerce have denied any involvement in the proposed dirty tricks, while Berico and Palantir Technologies have issued statements saying they had nothing to do with the proposals and ending their relationship with HBGary Federal, though new reports seem to contradict those denials of involvement.

So far, though, Hunton & Williams has declined to comment on the controversy. That's not altogether surprising, given what's at stake for the well-connected firm.

A political player

Founded in 1901 in Richmond, Va. as Munford, Hunton, Williams & Anderson, the law firm now known as Hunton & Williams has evolved into an international force, with offices across the U.S. and in Bangkok, Beijing, Brussels and London. The Chamber is among the firm's long-time clients, with the late Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell Jr. advising the business group when he was a Hunton & Williams partner.

Since Hunton & Williams took its first electric company as a client in 1904, energy has become a major area of its focus. The firm has represented the West Virginia Coal Association in its fight to continue mountaintop removal mining, Georgia Power in its effort to fend off a race discrimination suit brought by former employees, and the Tennessee Valley Authority in its battle to avoid installing costing pollution controls at its coal-fired power plants.

Hunton & Williams is also a political player, both in terms of campaign contributions and lobbying.

The firm itself has donated directly to the campaigns of numerous members of Congress in the past decade, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. In 2010 alone, it contributed to congressional candidates -- all Republicans -- including Reps. Randy Forbes (R-Va.), Eric Cantor (R-Va.), Fred Upton (R-Mich.), Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and John Shimkus (R-Ill.).

Hunton & William is also a major lobbying force, with lobbying income of more than $2.8 million in 2010. Among its biggest lobbying clients are energy firms: Energy Future Holdings Corp. (formerly TXU Corp.), Southern Co., Gas Processors Association, FirstEnergy, and Kansas-based Koch Industries, a diversified oil company whose owners are major funders of conservative causes.

Also among the firm's lobbying clients are North Carolina-based Duke Energy and Progress Energy, which recently announced merger plans, and Americans for Affordable Climate Policy, a group formed by Duke Energy and other coal-dependent utilities to ensure that any carbon cap-and-trade system established by Congress includes free pollution credits for industry.

With a prestigious client list like that, why would Hunton & Williams risk it all by engaging in ethically questionable and potentially reputation-damaging behavior like spying on and setting up activists and journalists?

One possible answer might be found by following the money.

Hunton & Williams apparently saw an opportunity to get a cut of an estimated $2 million a month for six months in subcontractor payments as part of the plan to discredit the corporate critics. The Blog of Legal Times reports on a leaked e-mail written by a Palantir employee the day after a meeting last November in Hunton & Williams' Washington office:

"They still think that this team (H&W, Themis) has potential for huge gains in this market especially since 'the results of the election made some people angry,'" wrote the employee, Matthew Steckman. He added, "god I love these guys."

Racism?

During the Mashpee Wampanoag casino process in Middleboro, the Convicted Felon Tribal Leader, Glenn Marshall freely and easily tossed out the label of "Racism" in a carefully scripted speech to avoid answering the difficult questions about the casino's potential impacts.

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Casino supporters, without considering the questions that were asked and the discussion that was stifled as a consequence, readily accepted the term to avoid questioning facts.

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For those who rally around the term and express concerns about the issue of racism in our great land, it would seem that they would be particularly concerned about Environmental Justice.

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What exactly is "environmental justice"? This is how the EPA's Office of Environmental Justice defines it:
Environmental Justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. EPA has this goal for all communities and persons across this Nation. It will be achieved when everyone enjoys the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards and equal access to the decision-making process to have a healthy environment in which to live, learn, and work.
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ISS reports --
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The Tennessee Valley Authority has begun shipping toxic coal ash from the massive spill that occurred last December at its Kingston power plant in east Tennessee's Roane County to landfills in the neighboring states of Georgia and Alabama as part of a test to determine a final resting place for the waste.The counties where the ash is going have large black populations and high poverty rates, raising questions about environmental justice.
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Located in western Georgia's Piedmont, Taylor County is an agricultural area where almost 41% of the population is African-American and more than 24% of residents live in poverty, according to census data. By comparison, the state is 30% black with 14.3% of its residents in poverty. In recent years, Taylor County gained notoriety as one of the last communities in the South to still hold racially segregated high-school proms.
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Part of the historic "Black Belt," Alabama's Perry County is 69% African-American with more than 32% of its residents living in poverty, making it one of the poorest counties in the state, which is 26.5% black with 16.6% of its residents in poverty.
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Researchers have found that solid waste landfills tend to be located disproportionately in communities of color and low-wealth communities. For example, a recent study in North Carolina found that the odds of a solid waste facility were 2.8 times greater for communities with where 50% or more residents are people of color compared to those where less than 10% of residents are people of color. It also found that communities with lower housing values were more likely to have landfills.
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Pennsylvania refused to accept TVA's waste.
TVA hasn't decided where it will send the rest of the ash. Limited dredging of some 3 million cubic yards in the river has just begun. The ash is 30 feet deep in some places.
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As part of our national ENERGY dialogue, should we consider the legacy of Mountaintop Removal, Coal Ash, and Dirty Coal ?
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One look at TVA's CEO Tom Kilgore just tells us we should trust him to do the right thing! [insert sarcasm emoticon]
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TVA Forced To Clean Up

It looks like TVA, the owners of coal ash ponds that are seeping contaminants into drinking water and streams including the major sludge overflow that caused the December 22nd spill in Harriman, Tennessee, may, finally, be forced to clean up its Dirty Coal act.

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Southern Studies reports --

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The Tennessee Valley Authority is facing mounting demands to leave behind its dirty energy past and become a clean energy leader.
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Last week, a federal judge denied the federal utility's appeal for more time to install pollution controls on coal-fired power plants that are dirtying North Carolina's air, the Asheville (N.C.) Citizen-Times reports. U.S. District Court Judge Lacy Thornburg decided against giving TVA more time to address emissions from four coal-fired power plants within 100 miles of North Carolina.
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The current Republican TVA Board has four opening that President Obama will fill shortly and appearances are that his appointments will be more environmentally responsible.

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This speaks volumes about our need to discard nuclear from consideration and get on with the task of powering our nation with renewables --

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Back in the 1970s, TVA had planned to build two reactors at the plant -- Bellefonte 1 and 2 -- but ditched the plans after spending some $4 billion.

Mountaintop Removal and Dirty Coal

My goodness! WP reports EPA to Scrutinize Permits for Mountaintop-Removal Mining and suddenly the Dirty Coal Companies are outraged!

For 8 years, environmentalists and grassroots activists and those who have opposed the destruction of their communities by Dirty Coal have been considered 'vested interests' to be easily dismissed.

Dirty Coal has blown up 450 mountains, contaminated streams and drinking water, created ash sludge ponds around the nation that threaten each of us. Dirty Coal fills the air, carries with it mercury to sterilize lakes, ponds, soil.

Dirty Coal is cheap because environmental costs are ignored.

Dirty Coal has been a generous campaign contributor who purchased congressmen and paid for lobbyists.

Dirty Coal looks none too pleased with this Adminsitration!

The Environmental Protection Agency put hundreds of mountaintop mining operations on notice that they would be the focus of closer scrutiny yesterday, saying it needs to review their impact on local streams and wetlands before they can move forward.

The announcement, which outraged mining interests and cheered environmentalists, challenged a Bush administration policy and blocked the effect of a federal court decision that had made it easier for mine operators to dispose of the rubble and sludge created when companies blow off the tops of mountains to get to the coal buried underneath.


"It's absolutely puzzling to me why you would want to dismantle a state's economy," Raney [president of the West Virginia Coal Association] said. "Does this mean in the steep terrain of eastern America, we're not going to have roads, we're not going to have economic development, we're not going to have Wal-Marts?"

So Mountaintop Removal is equivalent to building a Wal-Mart?

I like mountains. And you?

"Get clean coal clean!"

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From This Is Reality --

A lot has happened since we launched the Reality Campaign to call out the coal industry for their dirty lies. The devastating coal ash spill in Tennessee last December was a painful reminder that using "clean" to describe coal doesn't make it true. And last week, the Environmental Protection Agency's decision to reconsider carbon dioxide regulation was a tremendous wake-up call to the coal industry.

NATL DIRTY COAL CONCEALS SPILL MEDIA SILENT

NOTHING IN THE CORPORATE CONTROLLED MEDIA ABOUT THE NATIONAL COAL CORPORATION COAL SPILL.

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Note the time discrepancy. The spill occurred on FRIDAY and was discovered on MONDAY and reported, after attempts at cleanup had been ongoing over the weekend. Something to hide?

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The Sierra Club offered the following (emphasis mine):
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#1 On December 22, one billion gallons of coal ash sludge and contaminated water, the waste product of coal-fired power plants of the Tennessee Valley Authority, broke through a containment area into the rivers of Kingston, Tennessee.
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#2 Last week a coal train operated by National Coal Corporation over turned spilling approximately 1100 tons of coal next to the New River in Scott County, Tennessee. Eight rail cars, which typically hold 120 tons of coal, were involved.
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#3 And now another spill occurred in Alabama at the Tennessee Valley Authority Widows Creek coal-fired plant, releasing up to 10,000 gallons of polluted sludge.
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These spills highlight the urgent need for us to begin moving beyond coal to cleaner energy sources that power our communities without polluting them.
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President-elect Obama can jumpstart a clean energy economy and start reducing global warming pollution immediately by doing the following:
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Direct the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to grant a waiver that will allow California and over a dozen other states to limit global warming pollution from cars.
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End the rush to build dirty coal plants by directing the EPA to require all new and existing power plants limit their global warming emissions.
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Direct the EPA to end irresponsible mountaintop removal coal mining by stopping coal companies from dumping rock and waste into valleys and streams.
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Restore America’s international leadership in the fight to end global warming by publicly committing the U.S. to cut its CO2 emissions by at least 35% by 2020.
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It’s becoming clear that the magnitude of the billion gallon sludge spill in Kingston, Tennessee finally shined a light on a quiet tragedy that has been going on for decades--smaller coal ash spills and releases that pollute our land and water.
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From The Huffington Post:
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ONEIDA, Tenn.
A coal train operated by National Coal Corporation over turned on Friday, January 9, 2009, spilling approximately 1100 tons of coal next to the New River in Scott County, Tennessee. Eight rail cars, which typically hold 120 tons of coal, were involved.

The contamination was discovered on Monday, January 12, 2009 by Steve Bakaletz, a Wildlife Biologist with the National Park Service at the Big South Fork (BSF) Recreation Area's Oneida Office.
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The Alliance for Appalachia

“Now we have examples — right here in Tennessee — of the dirty face of coal, from mountaintop and surface coal mining to coal transport to coal combustion and coal waste disposal,” said Cathie Bird, Chairperson of the Stripmine Issues Committee of SOCM.
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“I think somebody’s trying to tell us something. We need to push past coal and focus on clean energy sources, before any more streams are trashed or lives disrupted,” said Bird.
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Another Tennessee Coal Spill. Seriously.
I can’t believe this — 1100 TONS of coal dumped in Tennessee and I can’t find ANYthing about this anywhere on-line except via the good folks with Sierra Club and Save Our Cumberland Mountains in Tennessee.
If you are fed up and fired up and ready to stand in solidarity with communities in Tennessee check out Mountain Justice Spring Break www.mjsb.org which will be happening near the TVA Ash Dam Disaster March 7-15, 2009 and will encourage service projects and direct action against TVA’s criminal negligence.
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PowerPastCoal
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The Second of Three Dirty Coal Spills

TVA allowed more hazardous waste to enter streams and endanger drinking water.
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Note that none of these ponds is lined to protect groundwater contamination.
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Tennessee Green


In Tennessee, seeps have been noted in the ash structures at TVA's Cumberland and New Johnsonville facilities, according to the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.
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Thousands of gallons overflowed the settling pond, and much of it cascaded down a hill into the creek.
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A silvery gray sludge coated the shore in the photos taken at Bellefonte Landing, near a site for which TVA is seeking a permit to build a nuclear power plant.
Tennessee Green
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TVA has done such a bang up job in monitoring waste, monitoring the environment and getting this disaster cleaned up, the prospect of issuing a nuclear permit is sure inspiring!

Senator Kennedy: You need to lead for the public good

Honorable Senator Kennedy:
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You need to lead for the public good.
You need to support and promote projects like Cape Wind.

You need to oppose the expansion of DIRTY ENERGY that has created the abundance of your wealthy friends.

We need your aggressive support to prepare for the post fossil fuel economy.

We hope you'll join in the effort.

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Appalachian Voices

The Dirty Lie of Clean Coal

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TVA Coal is Killing Tennessee

Dirty Coal: Memorable Quotes #1

In view of the Cape Wind opposition, the environmental destruction of DIRTY ENERGY is overlooked by the corporate owned media. Some of the comments emanating in defense of this mess are ludicrous.

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STEVENSON, Ala. (AP) — A waste pond at a coal-burning power plant in northeast Alabama ruptured Friday, but the spill was quickly contained, utility officials said.
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Too funny! We can trust these people right?
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In 2005, the utility reported depositing 445,200 tons of gypsum in ponds at the Widows Creek plant.
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TVA inspected all its retaining ponds, including the ones at the Widows Creek Fossil Plant, after the rupture in Tennessee. Moulton said on Dec. 31 that the ponds were "all in good shape."
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Ooops! Looks like you need to fire someone!
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TVA had sought no permits and hadn't coordinated with the state environment department about its special operation at the dam, and had not coordinated with Tennessee State Parks or the U.S. Forest Service, Calabrese-Benton said.
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Calabrese-Benton said the sediment had built up behind the dam over decades after flowing down from the Copper Basin, an area in the southeast corner of Tennessee where mining and pollution wiped out vegetation generations ago.
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Think CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS with each political comment about this disaster and the failure of Congress to prevent this environmental destruction --

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Toxic Influence: Coal ash-tainted money funds senators holding TVA disaster hearing
Using the most recent data available from the Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets.org website (updated with Federal Elections Commission data as of Dec. 8), the Institute for Southern Studies examined campaign contributions from electric utilities to members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in the 2008 elections. We found that the industry gave members of this key committee a total of $1,079,503.
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Another TVA coal waste spill underscores need for federal action
In addition to the disastrous spill of more than a billion gallons of toxic coal ash sludge from its Kingston power plant in Eastern Tennessee, the Tennessee Valley Authority is now grappling with another recent spill of coal waste pollution from one of its facilities.
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TVA Coal is Killing Tennessee

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.

New Year Resolutions!

The traditional New Year's custom seems to include a recitation of the previous year, along with a laundry list of resolutions for the New Year.

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Most of the resolutions will be hastily abandoned, like 'exercise more' and 'loose weight,' but some won't.

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Had the "C" monster not intruded in the region's field of vision, monopolized the debate, focused attention on a dysfunctional town government that still exists and forced many to expend a great deal of time researching and explaining why casino gambling and slot machines weren't the nirvana supporters pretended, where would we be? What would we have discussed? Or would we have remained isolated, mostly ignoring town government, not knowing who was running for town elections and frankly, not caring about local governance because of the false conviction that it was unimportant?

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The focused attention heightened awareness of the Rockland Industries' waste site, owned by the Striar family, that several individual residents refused to allow to fade into memory. To his credit, Vic Sylvia left the enduring legacy of a committee of talented townspeople who may finally succeed in getting Danny Striar's mess cleaned up. (There are others who continued to raise the issue that I am aware of, but since one protested the inclusion of his name, their names won't be listed. Were it not for those few continually reminding the BOS of the issue, it would have remained buried with the toxic waste of the Striars.) CEHIC

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Thanks are deserved to the Feds for presenting a gift to the Town and the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe of an indictment and plea bargain of Glenn Marshall prior to Christmas. Their actions should allow the Tribe and the Town to reassess the Tribe's leadership, the original IGA, the relationship with investors and ultimately, how flawed IGRA was. Although it seems unlikely in the shadow of Carcieri v Kempthorne and the state of the economy that the casino will ever move forward, it has allowed time to review the relationship and the impacts.

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Fellow bloggers have explained the issues in praiseworthy fashion that needs no further comment:

Bellicose Bumpkin,

Carl's Casino Quotes,

Gladys Kravitz

Carver Chick

Fiferstone

Truth to Power

Ryan's Take

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Massachusetts passed the Green Communities Act. But it did include provisions for Dirty Coal, the environmental oxymoron, apparently a politically necessary fairy tale to get the legislation passed.

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As the lame duck year ends, the news hasn't been good for the environment.
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Amy Goodman highlights Tim DeChristopher's disruption of the -- Bureau of Land Management land auction that the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance called “the Bush administration’s last great gift to the oil and gas industry.”

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Tim DeChristopher ...bought 22,000 acres of public land. That is, he successfully bid on the public properties, located near the Arches and Canyonlands National Parks and Dinosaur National Monument, and other pristine areas. The price tag: more than $1.7 million. (For those who balked at selling the Precinct St. property to casino investors for a comparable sum, that's ~ $77 per acre.)
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Earthjustice commented Coalition Calls for Administration to Halt Midnight Lease Auction of Utah Wilderness.

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And lest we believe that this Administration would leave off without last minute, holiday shenanigans, after the news cycle, they behaved true to form --CEJournal -

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On late Wednesday afternoon — New Year’s Eve — the Interior Department announced that it would double the rate of logging on 2.6 million acres of public forests in southwestern Oregon.

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And the TVA performs as expected: too much public relations and not enough prevention and attention to public health! That sure is a surprise to anyone with a brain! ENN

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Repeat after me: The water is safe to drink. The water is safe to drink. The water is safe to drink.

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“Most of that material is inert,” said Gilbert Francis Jr., a spokesman for the authority. “It does have some heavy metals within it, but it’s not toxic or anything.”

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Mr. Francis said contaminants in water samples taken near the spill site and at the intake for the town of Kingston, six miles downstream, were within acceptable levels. NYT

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High levels of toxins found at coal ash spill

Appalachian Voices is reporting that levels of arsenic from the Kingston plant’s water intake canal are close to 300 times the allowable limit in drinking water. Two miles downstream, arsenic is 30 times the allowable level. In total, eight toxic chemicals were detected at excessive levels, the tests conducted at Appalachian State University have shown.

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“I have never seen levels of arsenic, lead and copper this high in natural waters,” Carol Babyak, an Appalachian state assistant professor of chemistry who helped conduct the tests, is quoted as saying in the Appalachian Voices article.

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The toxic heavy metals found in the water, which in addition to arsenic include barium, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury, nickel and thallium, pose a risk not only to human health but also to aquatic life as well....

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Note to TVA: Could we see Gilbert Francis Jr., a spokesman for the authority or Tom Gilgore, President and Chief Executive Officer drinking that sludge on camera? Maybe you could bring some of that sludge with you to the Congressional hearings and drink it on-camera to preserve for posterity? Could you explain again about your environmental commitment when this pond has been allowed to leak in the past?
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Grist offers an opportunity to Vote for the top eco-villain of 2008. Too many bad guys and only one vote!

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With a new President who respects science about to be inaugurated, we can have a fact based discussion about what needs to be accomplished.

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Climate Code Red explained - Twenty per cent of the world’s land mass (half of it in Siberia) is covered by permafrost, or permanently frozen ground, rich in organic carbon and tens of metres in depth. As the ground thaws methane and carbon dioxide — the two principal greenhouse gases — are released into the atmosphere.

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“Permafrost areas [in Siberia] hold 500 billion tonnes of carbon, which can fast turn into greenhouse gases. The deposits of organic matter in these soils are so gigantic that they dwarf global oil reserves … If you don’t stop emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, this will lead to a type of global warming which will be impossible to stop [and it will make] the Kyoto Protocol seem like childish prattle… "
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In August 2008, Örjan Gustafsson, the Swedish leader of the International Siberian Shelf Study confirmed that methane was now also bubbling through seawater from permafrost on the seabed.
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Climate zones such as the tropics and temperate regions will continue to shift, and the oceans will become more acidic, endangering much marine life. We must begin to move rapidly to the post-fossil fuel clean-energy system. ...."

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"Sergei Zimov waded through knee-deep snow to reach a frozen lake where so much methane belches out of the melting permafrost that it spews from the ice like small geysers… the Russian scientist struck a match to make a jet of the greenhouse gas visible. The sudden plume of fire threw him backward. … 'Sometimes a big explosion happens, because the gas comes out like a bomb,' Zimov said. 'There are a million lakes like this in northern Siberia'."
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Keeping the Arctic permafrost largely intact is non-negotiable if we want to preserve the diversity of life on this planet, including our own. Australia’s climate policy must be based on this understanding. As oceanographer Richard Spinrad says, “What happens in the Arctic… does not stay in the Arctic.”

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The time has come to support projects like Cape Wind , to recognize that the opposition is funded by Dirty Energy Cape Wind Opposition In Perspective and accomplish what needs to be done for the environment.

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It is to the discredit of the Corporate Controlled Media that they have misrepresented and misinformed on these issues. Maybe it's time to re-think how poorly served we have been by our no longer 'Free Press,' but that's a future issue.

Sen. Michael R. Knapik, R-Westfield,.... also complained about opposition and delays in development of a proposed wind turbine farm in Nantucket Sound that would provide clean power to Cape Cod. “Wind power — God forbid, we help the Cape. We can’t even get that right” ....

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For some additional information:

NASA Study Illustrates How Peak Oil Impacts Climate Crisis

Climate change policies failing, Nasa scientist warns Obama

Climate scientists: it's time for 'Plan B'

What can we do to save our planet?

Score one for the environment

Happy New Year to All!

May we move forward in the New Year recognizing the TRUTH, the facts and fact-based science, support the projects we need to preserve our environment. May we restore FACTS to our discussions and decisions.

TVA Coal is Killing Tennessee

TVA has made no provisions to provide clean drinking water to residents of the area impacted by their earthen dike collapse and continues to repeat the mantra 'the water is safe, the water is safe, the water is safe.'

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Reports indicate that TVA is focusing on cleaning sludge from rail tracks to ensure coal deliveries, ignoring the mess making its way down river, in total disregard to the threat of the spreading hazardous waste.

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TVA Coal is Killing Tennessee offers space to post updated photos and videos and precautions Fact sheet to protect yourself from flyash.

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For whatever reason, the Corporate Controlled Media is largely ignoring this massive disaster. Wonder why?

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treehugger provides additional links and information.

United Mountain Defense

United Mountain Defense made this footage available --
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TVA says the area is not toxic but you can see coal sludge in the water and dead fish on the banks. The members of this community are without clean water and many without electricity or gas heat. We met people who were given motel rooms by TVA and others on the same street that have been without heat for days in 27° weather and others who have been vomiting for more than 12 hours after drinking the water.
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CEJournal: TVA has done nothing ....

From CEJournal --


What is that 'plastic pipe' that runs from the coal plants into the river?
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A truly frightening video from ground zero of the coal ash catastrophe

30 Times The Size of Exxon Valdez #5: EMPTY PROMISE

The volume and scope and threat posed by the TVA dike collapse is a great environmental catastrophe whose threat was known and predictable.

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Earthjustice Attorney Lisa Evans testified in a June 10 hearing of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Natural Resources titled "How Should the Federal Government Address the Health and Environmental Risks of Coal Combustion Waste?,

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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.

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TVA, a federally-owned independent corporation, initially estimated the amount of coal sludge released at 1.7 million cubic yards. But after completing an aerial survey of the inundated area, it revised its estimate upward to 5.4 million cubic yards. That's

more than 1 billion gallons of waste

containing potentially dangerous levels of heavy metals including arsenic, cadmium, mercury and lead, as well as radioactive elements such as uranium and thorium -- impurities typically found in coal.

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With regulators' blessing, TVA was simply putting ash from its massive Kingston plant -- where nine burners consume

***14,000 tons of coal a day***

-- into a nearby lagoon where it was mixed with water, allowed to settle and then pumped into what's known as a dredge cell. The company reports that the ash level in the dredge cell at the time of the collapse was unusually high: 55 feet above the water level in the nearby ash pond, with a spokesperson describing the level as "a lot higher than any other internal dredge cell that we have in TVA."

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***14,000 TONS = 28,000,000 POUNDS EACH DAY***

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These are among the hazards already documented --

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* contaminated public and private drinking water supplies in at least eight states, including Georgia;

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* fish consumption advisories issued in Texas and North Carolina; and

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* documented infertility and other abnormalities in nearly 25 species of amphibians and reptiles inhabiting coal combustion waste-contaminated wetlands in South Carolina.

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The ISS article concludes --

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Evans also noted more recent news reports of coal combustion waste contamination discovered in Maryland, Indiana and Montana. And when developers used 1.5 million tons of coal ash to build a golf course over a shallow aquifer in Chesapeake, Va., nearby wells almost immediately began showing elevated boron levels -- a marker for coal combustion waste contamination.

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Given the clear danger that poorly regulated coal combustion waste presents to the public, it's time for the federal government to take action to prevent another disaster like the one now facing Eastern Tennessee.

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Dirty Coal is Dirty Energy. If we fail to protect our environment, our air and our water, what have we left?

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Maybe Walt Kelly was right. We have met the enemy and he is us.

30 Times The Size of Exxon Valdez #4

From kenny's sideshow --



Watch CBS Videos Online

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