Jan 13 2009
A Second Coal Disaster
The good news: the second coal ash spill is much smaller.
The bad news: It happened. The news about the catastrophic coal ash spill in Tennessee gets worse as time goes on, but most disturbing of all is that there has been another coal sludge spill at the TVA Widows Creek Fossil Plant in Stevenson, Alabama. This one was ‘only” 10,000 gallons and was caused by a break in a pipe. The first spill was bad enough — it was so bad police have detained citizens trying to measure the toxicity levels of the water that was spilled! The water in two rivers and the groundwater is now contaminated in the area of the spill. Independent testing shows that high levels of toxic heavy metals are present in samples taken from the Kingston Fossil Plant ash spill in Harriman, TN. Concentrations of eight toxic chemicals range from twice to 300 times higher than drinking water limits, according to scientists with Appalachian State University who conducted the tests. View the results here (pdf)
The photo above was taken by New York photographer Antrim Caskey. You can see many more photos of the coal sludge spill here. The caption states: “The Schean lake house was thrown 30 feet of its foundation when the tsunami of semi-solid coal waste burst through his bedroom ceiling as he lay awake 40 minutes past midnight, December 22, 2008. Schean escaped by kicking out the bedroom window and clamoring up the embankment, just as first responders arrived.”
As with the first one, media coverage is minimal, except for online media. (You know that Gov. Blagovich story? Mostly distraction from the real news, as usual).
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