As Polluter Watch reminds us,
Today marks the one-year anniversary of the largest coal-related slurry spill in American history. Early on the morning of December 22, 2008, a waste containment system at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston Fossil Plant in Roane County, Tennessee failed catastrophically, releasing one billion gallons of toxic coal sludge into the surrounding area. The waves of ash flooded local rivers and seriously damaged dozens of homes and farms.
In honor of this anniversary, afeiller suggests calling Joe Lucas and the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE):
Lucas deserves credit for helping to pick up the pieces and continuously reform Big Coal’s image after disasters like these remind people that mining and burning coal will never be a clean process, no matter what you may hear on glossy television advertisements. He can be reached by calling ACCCE at (703) 684-7473? and asking for him by name. It may help you get through if you remind the operator that today is a special day for Lucas and the entire industry.
This anniversary also sees release of a report on the Kingston slurry spill
Reports filed with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) show that the TVA’s Kingston coal plant dumped into the Emory River in 2008 an estimated 140,000 pounds of arsenic contained in coal ash — more than twice the reported amount of the toxin discharged into U.S. waterways from all U.S. power plants in 2007.
The new Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data submitted to the EPA by TVA also show that the Kingston ash spill deposited nearly 320 tons of vanadium in the Emory River, or more than seven times the total discharge of this toxic pollutant from all power plants in 2007. The Kingston facility singlehandedly discharged more than of chromium, lead, manganese, and nickel into the Emory River last year than reported discharges of those pollutants from the entire U.S. power industry in 2007.
a total of 2.66 million pounds of 10 toxic pollutants – arsenic, barium, chromium, copper, lead, manganese, mercury, nickel, vanadium and zinc. That compares to the much lower 2.04 million pounds of such discharges from all U.S. power plants into surface waters in 2007. The 2.66 million pound of toxic pollutants dumped into the Emory River in 2008 is nearly 45 times higher than the 59,950 pounds of such materials the TVA Kingston coal plant reported that it released into all U.S. waterways in 2007.
Hmmm … perhaps Joe and his colleagues merit some thanks. After all, isn’t breaking records a good thing?
1 response so far ↓
1 sailrick // Dec 22, 2009 at 9:09 pm
And lets not forget the 300 million gallon coal slurry spill 9 years ago in Kentucky. It spread 75 miles to the Ohio river and contaminated the drinking water of 27,000 people. The EPA called it the worst environmental disaster in southeast U.S. history.
Massey Energy was fined a wopping $56,000 for that spill. Buying off judges and helping Republicans win Kentucky in the 2000 election , with massive contributions from the coal industry didn’t hurt. As soon as GW Bush was inaugurated, the lead investigator was canned and the case dropped. He was considering criminal charges.