King Coal still has issues, it seems...
A dam at the Kingston Fossil Plant, run by the TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) had a breakage the week of Christmas, and toxic ash sludge (300 million gallons) poured over several acres of land and into waterways, ruining several houses. The waterways, including the Emory River, feed ultimately into the Tennessee River, which flows through Chattanooga. Kingston is about 40 miles west of Knoxville. The accident is far larger than two related accidents, one in 1967 on the Clinch River in Virginia, and the other in 2005 in Northampton County, Pennsylvania.
Coal ash contains high levels of toxic chemicals such as arsenic, lead and selenium, which cause cancer and neurological problems. Several people in this area spent Christmas Eve worrying about their health and homes, rather than enjoying Christmas. Some fish kills were reported by anglers downstream from the spill site.
The coal in the Eastern Appalachian area carries 3 to 5 times higher levels of nickel, lead, arsenic and chromium than the coal mined in the Rocky Mountain or Northern Plains areas.
It appears that the Kingston site was stacking the coal ash higher and higher as they ran out of room in the increasingly inhabited area, ultimately leading to the accident. The TVA is looking into alternate means of storing the ash, they said. See the full article in the New York Times.
This accident is only the latest in a series of problems reported with coal mining in Tennessee. According to the September 2008 issue of the Tennes-Sierran, the newsletter of the Tennessee Chapter of the Sierra Club, the Zeb Mountain Coal Mine has been dumping harmful amounts of selenium into Tennessee waterways for a while. Located in Campbell and Scott Counties, this mine is of the mountain-top removal type, and is operated by the National Coal Corporation. The company was put on notice by the Sierra Club, the Tennessee Clean Water Network (TCWN) and Save Our Cumberland Mountains (SOCM) in August 2008 for the pollution.
In humans, selenium pollution is very toxic, and can result in hair and fingernail loss, kidney and liver damage, and damage to the nervous and circulatory systems. In fish, this pollution bio-accumulates, causing reproductive failure, birth defects, and damage to gills and internal organs. Read the full article about the Zeb Mountain Coal Mine pollution in the Tennes-Sierran.
Being that my parents and most of my family is from West Virginia, I am always being made aware of the pollution that has been caused in that state by mountain top removal coal mining. West Virginia environmental activists have taken note of issues occuring in other states as well, related to this form of coal mining. Here is an article about the Zeb Mountain pollution in the West Virginia Highlands Voice, the blog of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy.
Picture courtesy of the Knoxville News Sentinel, via AP.
Whoa, i can see in the picture the houses were really devastated by the Coal accident.
-james
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