Epic Environmental Fail: Landowners sue Tennessee Valley Authority for $165M over Coal Ash Spill
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada 
on 12.31.08
Clean Coal Fans, Take Note
As reported here on TreeHugger and on Discovery News last week: "Monday night 2.6 million cubic yards (the equivalent of 525.2 million gallons, 48 times more than the Exxon Valdez spill by volume) of coal ash sludge broke through a dike of a 40-acre holding pond at TVA's Kingston coal-fired power plant covering 400 acres up to six feet deep, damaging 12 homes and wrecking a train." Read on for more.
Cleaning this up is such a monumental task that it could take years, and we still don't know just how many toxic things are in that sludge and what the impacts on the local environment will be.
According to a second Discovery News piece on the subject:
America's thirst for energy generates leaves between 122 and 129 million tons of waste from spent coal each year. Most of that is fly ash, a fine, talcum-like powder. Bottom ash, boiler slag, and sulfur-rich solids left over from scrubbers in the plants' smoke stacks all have to be disposed of, too.
Strangely, the EPA "does not consider coal ash a hazardous waste, despite the fact that it contains mercury, selenium, and arsenic, among other heavy metals." But not everybody agrees.
39 environmental groups have drafted a letter asking the Obama administration to "reject a pending federal rule that will make it easier to dispose of coal combustion waste from power plants in abandoned mines" and tighten rules regarding coal ash disposal.
Steve Ahlstedt, an independent aquatic biologist, told CNN that a spill of this magnitude probably will affect the area's ecological balance."Once the ash has settled to the bottom of the rivers, all heavy metals will hang around for a long time," he said. "When coal releases into the water, the mussel population goes into deep freeze. They are the 'canary in the coal mine.' They are the main indicator of how healthy our water is."
$165M Lawsuit Against TVA
The latest news were that a group of Tennessee landowners decided to sue the Tennessee Valley Authority yesterday for $165 million.
TVA, its board of directors, President and CEO Tom Kilgore and other TVA executives are named as defendants. The suit asks for $15 million in compensatory damages and $150 million in punitive damages.The nonprofit Southern Alliance for Clean Energy said it also notified TVA on Tuesday that it intends to sue under the federal Clean Water Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.
According to Discovery News: "In a 2006 report, EPA officials stated that they investigated 86 complaints of damage to human health or the environment caused by "fossil-fuel-combustion waste management units" between 1994 and 2004. Though the outcomes of the investigations were not immediately clear, the report appears to tacitly acknowledge that coal ash is dangerous, a position that would contradict the agency's own lax policy toward the waste product."
Something will definitely have to be done to make the storing of coal ash safer (the ultimate solution would be to stop burning coal, but that won't happen in the short-term unfortunately).
Via Discovery News, Associated Press
More Coal Articles
2.6 Million Cubic Yards of Toxic Coal Ash Slurry Released in Tennessee Dike Burst
There Is No Such Thing As Clean Coal
The Real Clean Coal? Former Mine Becomes Clean Energy Village
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Stop burning coal? What a wonderful idea!
No more mountaintop removal
No more arsenic and mecury laced coal waste
More jobs in better energy sources
May cost us a bit more for energy for a while, but it is time to base our decisions on things other than the almighty dollar.
For too long in this country it has been, "If it makes money, do it". There are other reasons to do things than making a profit.
Ya, I believe that even "clean" coal is probably worse than nuclear after seeing this, thus I'm in favor of the green grid and many mirrors...
20,000 years from now, the Earth won't give a dam, whether it has a fowled methane rich atmosphere unsuitable for (human) life caused by global warming,
a radioactive biosphere from excess nuke plants (and terrorists),
or a perfect air with only excess sand caused from the deteriation of millions of concentrated solar thermal plants.
There's been talk about the possibility of "big solar" leaving a "big footprint". It's better to have all them mirrors in the desert than to completely ruin the planet by opting to go with "clean coal" and the likes.
CSP costs about the same (less in mass) but would create WAY more jobs than nuclear too.
CSP stores on demand power. No longer would people laugh at solar when the sun goes down!
It sucks to hear about this : ( I hope it gets cleaned up fast!
shouldn"t they sue the owner of the mine?
Correction, it's a clean coal ash spill. Since it's clean it doesn't really need to be "cleaned" up. You see how simple it is? Just put the word clean in front of the word coal and all the problems are solved.
The president of the EPA (appointed by Bush) was the head of a large and influential Coal energy company.
What a coincidence they treat coal waste like it's nothing.
Actually what is meant by "clean coal" involves the gasification of the coal before it is burned or used in a fuel cell. When burned it does have a co2 output, but all the other bad stuff is taken out during the gasification and clean-up of the synthesis gas. Wiki gasification. Then Google H2CAR + Purdue.
Truespeak @ 1 says:
-May cost us a bit more for energy for a while, but it is time to base our decisions on things other than the almighty dollar. For too long in this country it has been, "If it makes money, do it". There are other reasons to do things than making a profit.
That is blasphemy, how dare you suggest anti-capitalist systems, dont you know that if we reduce spending, live locally, grow our own food, and work toward sustainable small scale energy solutions we might as well be communists! Is that what your suggesting? Eating healthy food we grow ourselves, living in communities instead of cities, working toward permiculture, you radical eco-terrorist. ; )
Good on you Truespeak, keep up the fight.
The coal industry is just like the nuclear industry - they work on the basis that the cost of safely disposing/storing their waste never has to be payed for - sadly, for all of us and the environment the real world isn't as easily duped as the politicians that enable the shady practice to continue.
They corrected the amount of the spill, raised it to 5.4 million cubic yards.
I too "hope it gets cleaned up fast", but I fear not. Just to move that much in dump trucks would take, well, if they use 6 yard trucks, that would take almost 1,000,000 truck loads. If they can move 1,000 truck loads per day, it would take over two years. With much of it in the river, it will be hard difficult to move at all. I fear the river will be ruined for a long time, and a long way downstream.
Interesting how the news is saying this spill caused no deaths, but I've seen video already of many fish killed. Why don't we count fish and mussels dying as "deaths"?
Can we change the name from "clean coal" to "cancer causing coal"?
Take a look at a local resident's slide show at:
http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=7c86b1fc80ba6d8b7de9cd&skin_id=1602&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url
Keep an eye on news involving TVA on the website for local news channel, wbir.com.
What is TVA's problem??? More "mishaps":
Gypsum spill at coal-burning plant in Stevenson, AL.
Sediment released into Ocoee River.