Huge 500 Million Gallon Coal Ash Floods Clinch River in TN

In another blow to the myth of "clean coal", a huge flood of coal ash waste flooded residents and polluted miles of Tennessee rivers on Sunday evening around 11 PM. The coal ash what is left over from the burning of coal in a power plant. This ash is stored in ponds at a Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) power plant in Harriman, TN.

Coal Combustion Waste in Kentucky Kentucky is the largest generator among states of coal combustion wastes (CCW) according to 2006 figures from the Energy Information Administration. Coal burners here produced 14,537 thousand short tons of coal combustion waste generated — number 1 in the nation (compared to Tennessee's 3,803 thousand short tons annually).  Of Kentucky's total, 56% was fly ash, 24% was flue gas desulfurization material, 17% was bottom ash, and 3% was "other by-products.â€

As clean air standards have required coal power plants to capture more of the pollutants that are normally emitted from a coal power plant by the use of smoke-stack scrubbers, the waste product from this process, the ash, has become more and more toxic. Some of the pollutants contained in coal ash are mercury, arsenic and sulfur.

TVA's Kilgore said that chemicals in the ash are of concern, but that the situation is probably safe. The power plant is still operating, sending the ash to a larger pond on the site.

It appears that when the earthen damn that holds the lake of coal ash broke it sent millions of gallons of coal ash sludge into the Emory River that then flows into the Clinch River and eventually becomes the drinking source for Chattanooga. Aerial video and pictures show houses covered in the coal ash waste and enormous fish kills. These images look very similar to the Martin County coal sludge flood in 2000 that released 300 million gallons of coal sludge and flooded several communities in Martin County and shut down water systems for 75 miles down the Big Sandy and Ohio rivers.

In similar news, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that 39 groups protesting coal ash rule change. These citizen environmental organizations are urging President Elect Obama to reject a proposed new rule making it easier for coal companies to dispose of Coal Combustions Waste, the fly ash from power plants, in abandon mines.

Disposal of coal ash in mines is a growing practice that threatens the health and environment of coalfield communities," said Lisa Graves Marcucci, president of Jefferson Action Group in Jefferson Hills, who noted that 120 abandoned mines are already used for ash disposal in Pennsylvania.

Here are some of the news stories and video links about the coal ash flood: Isn't it interesting that the spill happened Sunday night and on Tuesday there is still very little national news coverage beyond the blogs.

• Here is a YouTube video from the Knoxville News Sentinel
  


• From Now Public, Dike Breaks - Ash Slide Damages Homes in Tennessee
  


• From the blog Ruminations from the Distant Hills

• From the Knoxville News: Ash leak fuels debate on risks of coal waste


• From the Roanoke Times: Coal ash tsunami in Tennessee


• Here is a blog post about the flood from Appalachian Voices: Fly Ash Floods Tennessee River


• Here is another blog article from Green KY: Massive Slurry Spill in Tennessee on Monday


• This blog article was recently posted on website for The Alliance for Appalachia: TVA’s Coal Ash Sludge Pond Bursts


• On Wednesday morning, December 24th, this story ran in the New York Times: Water Supplies Tested After Tennessee Spill. by Shaila Dewan. Good for the New York Times, they followed up  the short article yesterday with a longer and more in depth news story today, December 25. This story not only documents the tragedy of the situation, but it also asks some good questions about the safety of the entire coal cycle. Coal Ash Spill Revives Issue of Its Hazards. Included in this news story is a great graphic that helps to tell the entire story of how the coal fly ash is produced and stored as well as good maps that show where the flood occured.
  

The Tennessee Valley Authority has issued no warnings about the potential chemical dangers of the spill, saying there was as yet no evidence of toxic substances. "Most of that material is inert,â€ said Gilbert Francis Jr., a spokesman for the authority. "It does have some heavy metals within it, but it’s not toxic or anything.â€

Holly Schean, a waitress whose home, which she shared with her parents, was swept off its foundation when millions of cubic yards of ash breached a retaining wall early Monday morning, said, "They’re giving their apologies, which don’t mean very much.â€

The T.V.A., Ms. Schean said, has not yet declared the house uninhabitable. But, she said: "I don’t need your apologies. I need information.

• The news program Democracy Now hosted by Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez did some great reporting on the flood Wednesday morning, December 24th. They interviewed Ann League with SOCM and Rick Hind with Greenpeace. You can read the transcript on their website or watch the program with Real Player. Spill at Tennessee Coal Plant Creates Environmental Disaster. Below are a couple of quotes from the program by Ann League:
  

It is a beautiful community. The area around Harriman is known for its fishing. The river there is one of the cleanest in the area. People go down there to recreate, to fish. It’s just a huge, huge problem that this has happened. I mean, this is affecting more than the people who just live around there; this affects everyone in the area. And it just shows that the cycle of coal can never be clean.

It’s a myth. Clean coal is just a huge myth. It cannot be clean. It starts dirty from the extraction. As we see by what just happened in Harriman, it’s dirty after you burn it, also. They keep talking about clean coal and how they can clean it up after they burn it. Very few people talk about the extraction end of coal. If you could see the beautiful mountains of Appalachia being flattened and blown up day after day, you’d know that coal cannot be clean. There’s people who are losing their homes, whose drinking water has been polluted by the acid mine drainage coming off these huge mountaintop removal sites. There’s no such thing as clean coal. It can never be clean, as long as they’re blowing up our mountains and polluting our waterways with this coal sludge.

If you put scrubbers on these plants that go to clean coal technology, they’ll start burning dirtier and dirtier coal, and therefore, the sludge that they’re holding in these ponds is going to get more and more toxic, so the next accident we have like this where a pond gives way, what comes out of that is going to be even worse than what came out of the Harriman sludge pond.

• National Public Radio has begun reporting on this story today, Friday December 26th. You can read the transcript or listen to the report from Morning Edition: Water Safe, Cleanup Underway In Tenn. Dike Burst you can also listen to NPR try to answer the question Is Ash-filled Sludge a Health Threat? Then on NPR's evening news program All Things Considered: Coal Ash May Pose Health Hazard. (You should be able to listen to this news story after 7 PM est. today.)
  

We will continue update this post with news and action steps as this story continues to unfold.