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This is Your Life…on Coal: Before & After Video, Harriman, TN Coal Ash Disaster
If you still haven’t been able to wrap yourself around what it means to have more than 1 BILLION GALLONS of coal ash full of heavy metal and chemicals flood, flow, crash and destroy everything around you, as it did for the residents of Harriman, Tennessee three days before Christmas, first check out these photos by NASA, from before and after:
Before:
After – the paler blue indicates the extent and location of now-polluted water:
And if those images are still too abstract, the ones in this video, that show life on the water in what was a typically gorgeous part of Appalachia in Tennessee, before and after the spill, will disabuse you still:
On Thursday, 1/8/09, there was a hearing on Capitol Hill regarding this disaster and supposedly the TVA chief was worked over hard. But the state elected officials, like senior US Senator Lamar Alexander? He couldn’t be bothered – he is actually on the committee. But he needed to attend a congressional GOP retreat instead.
Really makes you feel like the people you voted for care, huh?
NB: And if you think you’re safe, think again.
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9 Responses to “This is Your Life…on Coal: Before & After Video, Harriman, TN Coal Ash Disaster”
Readers should not fear or abhor coal excessively because of this accident. It is hardly typical or characteristic of coal.
The solid waste, in addition to the smoke, from burning coal is, however. Remember that the next time you see a long train pass by of full hopper cars, full of coal.
You are right – there's no need to fear or abhor it excessively. Fearing and abhorring it at whatever you'd consider to be a non-excessive level works just fine. The storage method for the waste product is to blame just as much as the waste product itself. But you are right – no need to be excessively abhorring or fearing – a normal level is fine too.
I would say some measure of concern is in order. Not just what's done with the waste, but in obtaining the fuel in the first place.
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Mount…
http://www.thestar.com/sciencetech/Environment/…
http://www.appvoices.org/index.php?/site/mtr_ov…
Bottom line, coal is very useful, very inexpensive, but filthy, generating huge amounts of waste — and don't forget the effects on people.
http://www3.cet.edu/appalachianinstitute/
Cost benefit analysis indeed but with more people, more need, more use? More danger.
As a resident of East Tennessee, I can tell you that TVA is not a popular institution and that coal power is widely blamed for our terrible air pollution. The terrain locks in pollutants in the Tennessee Valley, and the 10 million people visiting Great Smoky Mountains National Park each year only adds to the bad air. But TVA is not supposed to be this haphazard in handling its coal waste. TVA is not some jive smalltime mining outfit. It's the biggest utility in the world. And it's deceiving the people as far as the effect on the water supply. If TVA Chief Tom Kilgore keeps his job, I'll be amazed – and depressed.
Elrod – thanks very much for commenting on this. I can hoo and ha all I want over the disaster, but I'm not there nor do I live there or know anyone personally who does. Not that that matters when it comes to caring about our land and people, but still – it's really important and helpful to hear from people who are familiar with the region and the TVA. Thanks very much.
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Check out a new video showing before and after shots of Harriman, TN. http://tinyurl.com/cnf5oa or http://www.filthycoal.org. The video is set to “Filthy Clean” a folk song by Nick Annis