Tennessee coal ash slide creates widespread environmental disaster
by Kim PearsonUnless you follow blogs and Twitter, you probably didn't catch the news that an environmental disaster is unfolding in Tennessee that, according to experts, dwarfs the damage done by the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
Early Monday morning, a dam containing tons of coal ash burst in Harriman, Tennessee, burying an estimated 400-acre area in a 6-foot pile of toxic sludge. The dam belonged to the Kingston Fossil plant operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority. It produced fly ash, a byproduct of coal burning that contains troubling levels of lead, mercury and other heavy metals. That's in addition to being "100 times more radioactive than nuclear waste" according to Scientific American magazine and Dr. Steven Chu -- the man that Pres. Elect Barack Obama has tapped to run his Department of Energy.
You can get a look at the mess first hand from this aerial video by Knoxnews.com:
Here's an assessment from Wendy Redal, at the University of Colorado's Center for Environmental Journalism:
The TVA spill, nearly 50 times bigger than the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska in 1989, has forced the evacuation of 15 homes. One was ripped from its foundations by the cascade of poison waste, and a man who narrowly escaped the collapse of his home is currently hospitalized. .The spill has killed multitudes of fish that are washing up on the shores of several rivers, whose waters are opaque with oily gray ash.
According to a statement this evening from the TVA, there were no injuries. The TVA estimates that the cleanup may take weeks. However, the Nashville Tennesseean reports some experts say the damage will take years to clean up.
Despite the dimensions of the disaster, it fell to bloggers to break the story outside of the local news area. Amy Gahran noted that the lack of national media coverage follows CNN controversial announcement that it's cutting its technology and environmental staff in this post published tonight at Poynter.org:
This might not be surprising from CNN, which earlier this month cut its entire science, environment, and technology news team. Not surprisingly, the Society of Environmental Journalists and several other journalism organizations have formally protested the CNN cuts.
Of course, CNN Center in Atlanta is only about 200 miles from Harriman, TN -- just a three-hour drive... They could have thrown a regional news team on the story, but....
But Gahran was among the bloggers who has stepped into the breach. She created a Twitter hashtag #coalash to track and disseminate the latest news. (For non-twitter users -- a hashtag is a way of annotating twitter messages that makes related "tweets" easy to find.)
This isn't just a regional disaster. According to Kevin Grandia, it's an important data point in the national debate over "clean coal" as a partial solution to America's energy woes:
When it comes to PR spindoctoring there is always one surefire cure - reality.
It also comes at the same time that activists urged Obama to void a pending federal rule that would make it easier for power plant operators to dump coal waste in abandoned mines. According to the activists, such a rule could aggravate water pollution. They said 23 states are already seeing water contamination from coal waste. During the presidential campaign, Obama pledged support for clean coal technology.
As Grandia notes, from Greenpeace has called for a criminal investigation into the disaster. Their press release states, in part:
"Every facility like this is supposed to have a spill contingency plan to prevent this kind of disaster," said Rick Hind, Greenpeace Legislative Director. "The authorities need to get to the bottom of what went wrong and hold the responsible parties accountable."
Note: Special thanks to Amy Gahran who helped me understand the problem posed by coal ash
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Comments
Thank you, Kim
I saw some of the discussion on twitter but haven't had time to read up and understand the issue. I very much appreciate your excellent round up. Thanks to you (and Amy) for bring this to our attention as it has received scant media coverage and for educating.
BlogHer Contributing Editor
PopConsumer
Beyond Help
It shows the power of the blogosphere
You're welcome, Maria. I really have to give props to Amy and the folks at the Center for Environmental Journalism for helping me understand how serious this is. And what's worse, it appears that smaller versions of this disaster have been happening for a while, bu they've been underplayed, because they are happening in Appalachia.
Kim
BlogHer Contributing Editor|Professor Kim|
Thanks for this post
I saw it on Twitter but this is a lot more information and background. Weather related disasters are one thing, but a man-made disaster like this just makes me angry.
Virginia DeBolt
BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor
Web Teacher
First 50 Words
It raises issues that we need to address, for
sure
Thanks for your comment, Virginia. Your anger is understandable. The TVA said that after the spill, they made sure to inspect the other retaining walls in the area to ensure that they were solid. You can't help but wonder, though, how vulnerable we are to these kinds of spills in other coal-producing regions.
Kim
BlogHer Contributing Editor|Professor Kim|
You'd think this would be bigger news
I join Virginia and Maria n thanking you, Kim, and Amy for pushing this story to our attention. You'd think it would be bigger news.
WOW!
I guess CNN's feeling a deep pinch if it's cutting tech and science reporters. Seems odd in the Age of Tech. It's possible a non-science reporter wouldn't get how big a story this is unless she bothered to research it.
15 houses evacuated. You know how MSM love big sexy numbers. Guess 15 homes is not high enough and long-term damage is not instant enough.
Nordette is a Contributing Editor with BlogHer.com whose personal blog is WSATA, and she's finally taken the dive into Twitter. Her holiday BlogHer post is NOLA Soul, Christmas Spirit.
More updates
Kim - thank you so much for posting this so quickly - I actually missed it even though I remember you tweeting it - ugh - sorry!
Here's a list of links of coverage now and today, Christmas Day, the New York Times had a front page story on it! And online at the NYT, lots of links and images.
1. Great Democracy Now interview:
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/24/spill_at_tennessee_coal_plant_cre...
2. NYT front page story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/25/us/25sludge.html?ref=us
3. Knox News roundup of links:
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/dec/23/link-roundup-tva-disaster-roane...
What I want? The gov't officials to LIVE on those waterways AT the spill sites for one year - make sure they drink and use the water they tell everyone else is okay, breath that air, grow their food in that soil etc. Then let us have them tell us that this is a safe operation. Of course, that requires defining safe.
JillWrites Like She Talks
This will be tricky for the Obama
administration
Thanks for these updates. It's interesting that no one has asked either Pres. Bush or Pres.-elect Obama about this, and neither team has made a statement. As I noted in my blog post, the Obama/Biden campaign expressed support for "clean coal." Illinois is a major coal producing state, as is Pennsyvania, right next to Biden's state of Delaware. Abandoning coal would have significant economic costs, and would have heavy political costs as well. On the other hand, a heavy investment in coal would lead to significant increases in greenhouse gases, according analyses like this one from EcoGeek. As I mentioned, Obama's pick for energy Secretary, Steven Chu, has been vocal about the dangers of coal. So it's not clear where the Obama administration will come down on this. I'm sure that's something that environmental activists and journalists will want an answer to soon.
Kim
BlogHer Contributing Editor|Professor Kim|
It's in CNN's Breaking News today, Kim
I didn't see the story yesterday, but today CNN has the sludge story in its top headlines. Perhaps they felt the pressure to do more.
Nordette is a Contributing Editor with BlogHer.com whose personal blog is WSATA, and she's finally taken the dive into Twitter.
Better late than never, I suppose
Thanks for this pointer, Nordette. They also had this story Christmas Eve and a more perfunctory story just after the TVA's press conference Tuesday night. But you are right that without someone on the reporting staff who understands the dangers, it's easy for a story like this to go underreported. Let's hope that we see journalists in other communities asking questions, as well as some independent analysis of the environmental data as it emerges.
Kim
BlogHer Contributing Editor|Professor Kim|
And today on NPR's 6:00pm news, the 3rd story
So it's definitely making headway. I can't believe how much I'm learning, following this story, but I think the factor that is most important to explore and understand is how now is exactly the time when we won't see anything in the water. That, from what I've been reading, it is the toxins in the aggregate, as they settle and accumulate, that poses the greatest threat.
And the fact that so many people are saying how preventable it was.
AND as I put this incident together with stories I've heard about the FDA being unable to do what it's supposed to do, and the SEC not being able to do what it's supposed to do and Homeland Security divisions being unable to do what they are supposed to do, I cannot feel much more than intense anger for the government George Bush is handing over.
Jill Writes Like She Talks
12/27 Tennessean reports elevated levels of
thallium, lead in wa
The article is here.
What those levels mean isn't clear or made clearer in the article. Much is made of the water downstream not being dangerous and the idea that the heavy metals will drop to the bottom of the river and then a system can be set up by which the safe water flows over that bottom without getting contaminated.
I don't understand it all, but I don't trust it either. This kind of incident is why we don't trust - first TVA said that the pond that broke was not over capacity, but now that they've tripled the estimate of what was released, and that amount is more than double the capacity of the pond, it appears that the pond was in fact over capacity.
I'm a newbie to this, but the roll out of the information alone is not reassuring.
Jill Writes Like She Talks
TVA Arrested Activists Photographing Area
What are they trying to hide? Even the NY Times is now covering the story. This is why we need a multi-level free and open press, citizen journalism and activists.
http://planetsave.com/blog/2008/12/27/activists-detained-for-taking-ash-...
Clean coal my ash!
Gena - Out On The Stoop
Amen
And we need to protect open records laws as well, so that any available information about environmental impact can be obtained. According to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Tennessee passed a new open records law in June -- let's hope it's a useful tool in this case, and that citizens take advantage of it.
Loved the pun, by the way!
Kim
BlogHer Contributing Editor|Professor Kim|
Tomorrow
Kim- I live nearby and am going to see/take some video tomorrow. This is terrifying, especially since the folks that live here don't seem to be reacting too strongly. I'll post here, If I can figure out how to add video!
Posting Video - Many Options
I like www.Blip.tv but there are other options. Vimeo, YouTube and others. If you need help just let me know and we can talk about the best way to get your video posted. I think there has to be more than just overhead shots.
Be safe and protect yourself as best you can.
Gena - Out On The Stoop
Hope it went well
Looking forward to seeing your video. Let us know if you need help posting it!
KimBlogHer Contributing Editor|Professor Kim|
"Clean Coal" was snuck into
"Clean Coal" was snuck into the The American Clean Energy and Security Act right before it passed the other day. "Clean coal", that sounds like an oxymoron to me. Is this how they clean it, by dumping the debris into tanks and letting it spill and leach into our soil and groundwater?