HUGE coal ash spill in Tennessee

[Wheezer]

Video

story

There was a huge and terrible environmental disaster in Tennessee on Monday, Dec 22.

The Tennessee Valley Authority, better known as TVA, has a coal-burning power plant located near Harriman, Tennessee, along Interstate 40 between Knoxville and Nashville. The stuff that is left over after TVA burns their coal is called coal ash.

Coal ash contains mercury and dangerous heavy metals like lead and arsenic - materials found naturally in coal are concentrated in the ash.

TVA has a huge mountain of this coal waste material stored in a gigantic pile next to their Harriman (Kingston) power plant, alongside a tributary of the Tennessee River.

On Monday morning Dec. 22 around 1:00 am, the earthen retaining wall around this mountain of coal ash failed and approximately 500 million gallons of nasty black coal ash flowed into tributaries of the Tennessee River - the water supply for Chattanooga TN and millions of people living downstream in Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky.

This Tennessee TVA spill is over 40 times bigger than the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska, if local news accounts are correct.

This is a huge environmental disaster of epic proportions.

To see an amazing aerial video of the spill, go here. The big hunks and chunks in the river are mounds of coal ash.

Here is better aerial footage, but you have to watch a commercial first. Go here, then scroll down to the "Most Popular" section and find the button that says "aerial footage."

The local media are downplaying the spill, but the Nashville newspaper (The Tennessean) has a decent article.

When I first saw the 300 million gallon Martin County coal sludge spill in Kentucky in October 2000 I was outraged. I was sure that it would be a national news story, but it never was, because the coal companies and local law enforcement blocked the road leading to the spill and kept the media out. The national media was confused because they didn't know what "coal sludge" was. And ....the big national environmental groups didn't do enough to bring media attention to the Martin County disaster.

Thats not going to happen this time, because we have

1. You Tube

2. Bloggers

3. Digital cameras

4. You!

Lotsa people gonna be drinking bottled water for a while

 

[NFS4]

"Clean Coal" technology FTW :roll:

 

[xSauronx]

holy crap 🙁

 

[Baked]

Don't stir the water and the ash will just settle in the river bed...

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Originally posted by: NFS4
"Clean Coal" technology FTW :roll:

If you are so worried about the environment, why dont you try living without electricity. That way you arent hurting the environment? Oh...right you only want to do something when it doesnt inconvenience you.

 

[NFS4]

Originally posted by: RadiclDreamer

Originally posted by: NFS4
"Clean Coal" technology FTW :roll:

If you are so worried about the environment, why dont you try living without electricity. That way you arent hurting the environment? Oh...right you only want to do something when it doesnt inconvenience you.

"Jump to Conclusions Mat" much?

I was just laughing at the "Clean Coal" initiative that has been hitting the airwaves, then this happens.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Originally posted by: NFS4

Originally posted by: RadiclDreamer

Originally posted by: NFS4
"Clean Coal" technology FTW :roll:

If you are so worried about the environment, why dont you try living without electricity. That way you arent hurting the environment? Oh...right you only want to do something when it doesnt inconvenience you.

"Jump to Conclusions Mat" much?

I was just laughing at the "Clean Coal" initiative that has been hitting the airwaves, then this happens.

By clean coal, they mean they are trying to make it cleaner to burn, any fossil fuel source can damage the environment, not just coal.

 

[spidey07]

404 environmental disaster not found.

Sensationalism is found without any fact. Calling on youtube and blogs only makes it that much more hilarious.

 

[theblackbox]

Originally posted by: NFS4

Originally posted by: RadiclDreamer

Originally posted by: NFS4
"Clean Coal" technology FTW :roll:

If you are so worried about the environment, why dont you try living without electricity. That way you arent hurting the environment? Oh...right you only want to do something when it doesnt inconvenience you.

"Jump to Conclusions Mat" much?

I was just laughing at the "Clean Coal" initiative that has been hitting the airwaves, then this happens.

meh, accidents happen. doesn't mean clean coal isn't possible. poor storage and resolution is the cause here. wtf are they doing stockpiling coal ash?

we have a coal plant smack dab downtown, and we have 0 days of bad air reported by the EPA. our air is so clean, they removed vehicle emission testing in the counties because of our good air quality.
coal works here.

it seems to me tva needs to look into fly ash recycling, much like we do.

 

[Jeff7]

CNN's got the story.

Another article.

 

[Wheezer]

Originally posted by: spidey07
404 environmental disaster not found.

Sensationalism is found without any fact. Calling on youtube and blogs only makes it that much more hilarious.

Coal ash contains mercury and dangerous heavy metals like lead and arsenic - materials found naturally in coal are concentrated in the ash.

your right, it's not a serious problem.

But the next time you drink a glass of water...dump a used ashtray in it and let me know how it goes down.

 

[theblackbox]

and fly ash is only as bad as the process and the coal used. depending on the coal mix, and how the plant works, fly ash can be a big deal or a non factor. most places recycle it, fly ash makes great concrete.

 

[Strk]

Originally posted by: spidey07
404 environmental disaster not found.

Sensationalism is found without any fact. Calling on youtube and blogs only makes it that much more hilarious.

Coal slurry is pretty horrible stuff. It really is a shame how much coal we use. The sad part is, nuclear power is less deleterious to the environment, yet people seem ok with coal.

 

[Strk]

Originally posted by: theblackbox

Originally posted by: NFS4

Originally posted by: RadiclDreamer

Originally posted by: NFS4
"Clean Coal" technology FTW :roll:

If you are so worried about the environment, why dont you try living without electricity. That way you arent hurting the environment? Oh...right you only want to do something when it doesnt inconvenience you.

"Jump to Conclusions Mat" much?

I was just laughing at the "Clean Coal" initiative that has been hitting the airwaves, then this happens.

meh, accidents happen. doesn't mean clean coal isn't possible. poor storage and resolution is the cause here. wtf are they doing stockpiling coal ash?

we have a coal plant smack dab downtown, and we have 0 days of bad air reported by the EPA. our air is so clean, they removed vehicle emission testing in the counties because of our good air quality.
coal works here.

it seems to me tva needs to look into fly ash recycling, much like we do.

That doesn't even make sense. Your air is so clean they got rid of one of the ways to keep it clean? Right....

 

[clamum]

Wow, that does not sound good. I haven't seen anything in the news about this until this post.

 

[silverpig]

Wolf Blitzer: "That water is just so ashy, and so black..."

 

[theblackbox]

Originally posted by: Strk

Originally posted by: theblackbox

Originally posted by: NFS4

Originally posted by: RadiclDreamer

Originally posted by: NFS4
"Clean Coal" technology FTW :roll:

If you are so worried about the environment, why dont you try living without electricity. That way you arent hurting the environment? Oh...right you only want to do something when it doesnt inconvenience you.

"Jump to Conclusions Mat" much?

I was just laughing at the "Clean Coal" initiative that has been hitting the airwaves, then this happens.

meh, accidents happen. doesn't mean clean coal isn't possible. poor storage and resolution is the cause here. wtf are they doing stockpiling coal ash?

we have a coal plant smack dab downtown, and we have 0 days of bad air reported by the EPA. our air is so clean, they removed vehicle emission testing in the counties because of our good air quality.
coal works here.

it seems to me tva needs to look into fly ash recycling, much like we do.

That doesn't even make sense. Your air is so clean they got rid of one of the ways to keep it clean? Right....

it's the law. go figure. our air is clean, and we continually pass clean air standards, so we benefit. obviously, car emissions aren't that big of a factor when it comes to clean air here. Right....

 

[NFS4]

Originally posted by: silverpig
Wolf Blitzer: "That water is just so ashy, and so black..."

Post of the month!! :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

 

[NFS4]

Originally posted by: theblackbox

Originally posted by: Strk

Originally posted by: theblackbox

Originally posted by: NFS4

Originally posted by: RadiclDreamer

Originally posted by: NFS4
"Clean Coal" technology FTW :roll:

If you are so worried about the environment, why dont you try living without electricity. That way you arent hurting the environment? Oh...right you only want to do something when it doesnt inconvenience you.

"Jump to Conclusions Mat" much?

I was just laughing at the "Clean Coal" initiative that has been hitting the airwaves, then this happens.

meh, accidents happen. doesn't mean clean coal isn't possible. poor storage and resolution is the cause here. wtf are they doing stockpiling coal ash?

we have a coal plant smack dab downtown, and we have 0 days of bad air reported by the EPA. our air is so clean, they removed vehicle emission testing in the counties because of our good air quality.
coal works here.

it seems to me tva needs to look into fly ash recycling, much like we do.

That doesn't even make sense. Your air is so clean they got rid of one of the ways to keep it clean? Right....

it's the law. go figure. our air is clean, and we continually pass clean air standards, so we benefit. obviously, car emissions aren't that big of a factor when it comes to clean air here. Right....

That still doesn't make sense -- the air could be even cleaner and the county could profit from the costs associated with charging residents for testing.

 

[theblackbox]

Originally posted by: NFS4

Originally posted by: theblackbox

Originally posted by: Strk

Originally posted by: theblackbox

Originally posted by: NFS4

Originally posted by: RadiclDreamer

Originally posted by: NFS4
"Clean Coal" technology FTW :roll:

If you are so worried about the environment, why dont you try living without electricity. That way you arent hurting the environment? Oh...right you only want to do something when it doesnt inconvenience you.

"Jump to Conclusions Mat" much?

I was just laughing at the "Clean Coal" initiative that has been hitting the airwaves, then this happens.

meh, accidents happen. doesn't mean clean coal isn't possible. poor storage and resolution is the cause here. wtf are they doing stockpiling coal ash?

we have a coal plant smack dab downtown, and we have 0 days of bad air reported by the EPA. our air is so clean, they removed vehicle emission testing in the counties because of our good air quality.
coal works here.

it seems to me tva needs to look into fly ash recycling, much like we do.

That doesn't even make sense. Your air is so clean they got rid of one of the ways to keep it clean? Right....

it's the law. go figure. our air is clean, and we continually pass clean air standards, so we benefit. obviously, car emissions aren't that big of a factor when it comes to clean air here. Right....

That still doesn't make sense -- the air could be even cleaner and the county could profit from the costs associated with charging residents for testing.

county could profit. that says it all.

the only thing hurt here is that el paso county doesn't get profit from testing.
the only downfall is people were originally worried that denver would be sending it's non passing cars down our way, but never happened. life goes on, our air is clean, and the populous is happy.
the county can blame the state for revenue lost.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

Originally posted by: Strk

Originally posted by: spidey07
404 environmental disaster not found.

Sensationalism is found without any fact. Calling on youtube and blogs only makes it that much more hilarious.

Coal slurry is pretty horrible stuff. It really is a shame how much coal we use. The sad part is, nuclear power is less deleterious to the environment, yet people seem ok with coal.

its because we've been burning coal for industry for hundreds of years now...

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: RadiclDreamer

Originally posted by: NFS4
"Clean Coal" technology FTW :roll:

If you are so worried about the environment, why dont you try living without electricity. That way you arent hurting the environment? Oh...right you only want to do something when it doesnt inconvenience you.

That's quite the non sequitur...

Personally I like my hydroelectric power. If they had a nuke plant, I'd like that too. I also like natural gas, solar, geothermal, tidal, wind, and oil. Really everything but coal is OK in my book. Although massive recapturing efforts can be made to clean up the heavy metals, radioactive particles, particulates, and other nasties that "dirty" coal plants produce, you're spending a bunch of money to produce power that's no cleaner than many other methods, and has the added bonus of about the highest CO2 production per unit power of ANY method.

You act like coal is the only way we've ever developed to produce electricity.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: Wheezer

Originally posted by: spidey07
404 environmental disaster not found.

Sensationalism is found without any fact. Calling on youtube and blogs only makes it that much more hilarious.

Coal ash contains mercury and dangerous heavy metals like lead and arsenic - materials found naturally in coal are concentrated in the ash.

your right, it's not a serious problem.

But the next time you drink a glass of water...dump a used ashtray in it and let me know how it goes down.

It's not a serious problem. It really isn't. Some basic knowledge of chemistry would show you why. But yet the mention of mercury is bad.

How are those CFL light bulbs working for ya?

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: Wheezer

Originally posted by: spidey07
404 environmental disaster not found.

Sensationalism is found without any fact. Calling on youtube and blogs only makes it that much more hilarious.

Coal ash contains mercury and dangerous heavy metals like lead and arsenic - materials found naturally in coal are concentrated in the ash.

your right, it's not a serious problem.

But the next time you drink a glass of water...dump a used ashtray in it and let me know how it goes down.

He doesn't believe it because the source isn't Fox News. 😉

So let me get this straight - they have millions of gallons of carcinogens, and they think it's a good idea to store it next to a river? 😕

 

[Anubis]

itll buff right out