Tennessee Coal Ash Disaster Dwarfs Exxon Spill

"One of the worst environmental disasters in recent memory has unfolded over the last week in Kingston, Tennessee, where a massive coal waste spill has unleashed over a billion gallons of potentially toxic sludge into the Clinch River and surrounding land. Worst yet, the Tennessee Valley Authority – the nation’s largest government-owned utility, which owns the plant where the spill occurred – failed to properly warn residents in the area of the toxins the sludge contains.

The spill is nearly 50 times as big as the famous 1989 Exxon-Valdez spill in Alaska. It occurred around 1am on December 22nd when a wall holding back 80 acres of sludge from the TVA’s Fossil Plant gave way. Eight days later, the TVA has yet to release sampling data from the ash pile, and they’re actually trying to claim that the fly ash is not toxic.

The cause of the dam break is still under investigation. TVA has vowed to clean up the mess but says it could take months or even years. Meanwhile, residents fear that toxic elements could end up in their drinking water. They’re also concerned that once the mire dries out, fly ash will become airborne. The EPA has found elevated levels of arsenic in surface water, and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation said elevated contaminant levels were found in the immediate area of the spill.

Coal ash contains heavy metals including arsenic, mercury and lead. United Mountain Defense, a non-profit environmental organization based in Knoxville, Tennessee, has a fact sheet on the toxicity of coal ash based on 2007 EPA findings. The fact sheet details an EPA assessment that found extremely high risks to human health and the environment from the disposal of coal ash in waste ponds and landfills. The chart below illustrates the cancer risk of exposure to coal ash compared to that of smoking a pack of cigarettes a day."

ORIGINAL SOURCE: Earth First