Comments on: Environmental Catastrophe in East Tennessee

By: Honua

Honua — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 22:21:12 +0000

Right - no benzene in fly ash. The ash itself is the main immediate "toxicity" problem; anything in that river is buried and dead by now. The heavy metals (including arsenic) are likely to be 100% bioavailable and will pose very long-term ecological and human health problems. Even it were feasible, removal and disposal of the ash in a properly designed landfill would cost around $100+ a ton. Do the math, ain't gonna happen. Especially given the owner of the site.

As a long-time environmental regulator, I'd like to point out that the articles to date are missing a major point. TVA is a federally-owned corporation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee_Valley_A...

I can assure you that when it comes to environmental compliance, government agencies are the absolute worst, with only a few exceptions (a nod to my friends in the Air Force). The president of TVA and the current head of the USEPA, TVA's environmental "consultant," should both go to jail for this one. If they were a privately held company they probably would. But TVA employees a lot of people and brings a lot of money into Tennessee. You can imagine the politics. And to their benefit, TVA has some great scientists and does some great environmental work in the south. But $ is $.

By: The Sludge of an Imperfect Civilization | Fragments From Floyd

The Sludge of an Imperfect Civilization | Fragments From Floyd — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 20:06:00 +0000

[...] Environmental catastrophe in East Tennessee [...]

By: arsenic

arsenic — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 20:00:21 +0000

A little fact checking is in order. The Exxon Valdez effected 10o miles of coastline and square miles of ocean floor, orders of magnitude less area than this spill. Fly ash is not coal processing sludge (Inez, KY), it is a different material. Finally, if you can find any document anywhere, any lab report, that indicates that fly ash contains benzene I'll donate $100 to your blog. Think about it, fly ash is burnt coal, benzene is a component of gasoline. After you burn the coal, why would you have benzene. Yes, its a catastrophy. No need for inventing “facts”.

By: Jim_Satterfield

Jim_Satterfield — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 18:14:52 +0000

I agree with Elrod about the problem with the “clean coal” concept. Those who criticize other energy sources like wind and solar are more than willing to point out pollution produced in the manufacturing process. But somehow they don't examine the entire life cycle of coal from mining to waste disposal. Given this story I think it's obvious that the truth is that coal waste disposal has posed more problems than nuclear waste, which is a real kick in the pants to some people.

By: Rudi

Rudi — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 16:49:54 +0000

Sorry to hear about this, but the water main break was the disaster yesterday. Imagine the pain of our leaders and shakers in DC being delayed by the break. The bubble headed blondes were all upset…