Man-Made Eco Disasters in the Making

Climate change and deforestation now stand to wipe out more than 60% of the Amazon rainforest by 2030. Not only will that be disastrous for the vast array of wildlife that the forest contains as well as people who have called it home for centuries, but for the world climate. And that’s far from the only man-made eco disaster in the making.

Check out this video from Instablogs, which illustrates some of the consequences of human interference in the earth’s fragile ecological balance.

Instablogs is a ‘news ecosystem’ where citizen journalists, bloggers and the traditional media contribute content, share it and connect with each other. Check it out at instablogs.com.

Link [Instablogs]

95-Year-Old Activist Arrested Trying to Save Kids from Coal Sludge

Last June, Daryl Hannah, Dr. James Hansen and 29 others were arrested in Raleigh County, West Virginia while protesting outside a Massey Energy subsidiary’s coal processing plant. Hannah, an outspoken activist, got a lot of press for her role in the mountaintop removal protest – including here on EarthFirst – but perhaps the more interesting story lies with fellow protester Ken Hechler, a 95-year-old former congressman.

Hechler’s dedication to fighting irresponsible coal mining practices runs deep. In 1966, 144 people died – including more than 100 elementary school students – when a huge collection of coal waste stored on the mountain above their school broke loose and crushed them with a deafening roar. Hechler, a U.S. Representative for coal state West Virginia, was deeply affected by the tragedy, which took place across the Atlantic in Aberfan, South Wales. He knew that such a thing could happen in his area, too.

The following year, some of his friends along Buffalo Creek and other sections of Logan County, which he represented in Congress, warned him that mudslides had made a coal waste dam extremely vulnerable to collapse. Hechler immediately went to work, but his efforts couldn’t stop the Buffalo Creek tragedy.

From Hechler’s op-ed in the West Virginia Gazette:

What I saw, particularly along Buffalo Creek, horrified me. I telephoned Gov. Hulett Smith and urged him to assemble a team of officials to see for themselves the danger confronting the residents, and to figure out what remedial measures were necessary to save people’s lives. I had the disaster at Aberfan very much on my mind.

Gov. Smith said he would ask Finance Commissioner Truman Gore and officials of the State Road Commission and Department of Natural Resources to be ready for a call from me. I also asked two representatives on the Army Corps of Engineers to join the group of state officials to drive down to Buffalo Creek and other threatened areas of Logan County the following morning.

It was raining the next morning, but the officials all showed up. I also asked the local head of Island Creek Coal Co., Richard Herron, to come along, since one of the trouble spots was at Proctor Hollow near Amherstdale on Buffalo Creek.

News reporters from the Logan Banner, The Charleston Gazette and The Herald-Dispatch in Huntington ran accounts of our 1967 warning. But nothing was done – and five years later, 125 people were killed in the historic Buffalo Creek gob pile dam collapse.

Hechler was haunted by the deaths, and by the idea that it could happen yet again. In Raleigh County, a huge coal waste impoundment hangs, in Hechler’s words, “like a Sword of Damocles” a few hundred yards up the mountain above Marsh Creek Elementary School.

That’s why he was there that day, willing to get arrested to speak out against the dangers of coal mining once again. Hechler pleaded not guilty in July and is fighting the charges against him.

Read his full op-ed, ‘Ken Hechler: From Activist to Hell-Raiser’ at the West Virginia Gazette.

Link [West Virginia Gazette]
Photo: SludgeSafety.org

America’s Top 10 Worst Man Made Environmental Disasters

Every year on Earth Day, we all pat ourselves on the backs for such small, basic acts as planting a tree or turning off the tap while brushing our teeth. But it’s important to remember the destruction we can cause every other day of the year.

Humans have turned screwing up the earth into an art form, skillfully wreaking havoc on the land, water and air through negligence, lack of concern or even the greedy desire to profit at all costs. American corporations are especially adept at causing severe damage to the environment and human health, and some of the worst offenders – including Exxon Mobil, Monsanto and W.R. Grace – have, by and large, gotten away with it.

From knowingly dumping toxic chemicals into a stream where children play to willfully ignoring the potentially devastating weaknesses of their own facilities, men have managed to create destruction on earth that rivals the wrath of Mother Nature herself. Here are America’s top 10 worst environmental disasters caused by people.

10. Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone

Image credit: NOAA via Science Daily

American farmers love their chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and apply them liberally to their crops. Unfortunately, these chemicals – along with nitrogen-rich livestock waste – seeps from farmlands along the Mississippi River into the water and eventually, down into the Gulf of Mexico, where they have led to an oxygen-starved “dead zone” the size of New Jersey. Ocean dead zones cannot support sea life.

Nitrogen in the chemicals and animal waste spur the growth of algae, which is eaten by zooplankton. Those microscopic creatures then excrete pellets that sink to the bottom of the ocean and decay, a process that depletes the water of oxygen.

Researchers set out last July to study the dead zone, taking water samples and measuring the total affected area. Some water samples showed no oxygen at all, and smelled of hydrogen sulfide, a rotten egg smell that indicates organic sediments on the sea floor.

The dead zone has grown steadily over the past few decades. Though it tends to disappear in October once cold weather sets in, there’s a “legacy” left behind due to the fact that not all organic matter on the bottom decays in any given year. This means that even if the same amount of nitrogen is released into the Gulf year after year, the dead zone will get larger.

A recent study identified many of the sources of the nitrogen runoff along the Mississippi River, and the government plans to help states focus their pollution-reduction efforts to prevent some of the runoff from ending up in the river.

9. Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Image credit: Wikipedia

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, also known as the Pacific Ocean Trash Gyre, Eastern Garbage Patch or Pacific Trash Vortex, is a huge swirling mess of plastic in the North Central Pacific Ocean estimated by some to be the size of the United States. In fact, it’s even been referred to as the world’s largest garbage dump. The Algalita Marine Research Foundation found in 2008 that plastic outnumbers plankton in some areas of the patch by 48 to 1. Algalita’s education advisor Anna Cummins described the pollution just under the surface of the water as ‘plastic soup’.

It formed gradually over time as a result of marine pollution, gathered together in one area by oceanic currents, and may contain over 100 million tons of debris. Charles Moore, a California-based sea captain and ocean researcher who came upon the patch after competing in a sailing race, estimates that 80% of the garbage comes from land-based sources, with the other 20% coming from ships.

Much of the plastic in this patch and elsewhere in the ocean end up in the digestive systems of sea creatures including turtles, jellyfish, marine birds and other sea life.

8. West Virginia/Kentucky Coal Sludge Spill

Image credit: AppVoices

Did George W. Bush cover up a major environmental disaster during his presidency? In October of 2000, 300 million gallons of mercury- and arsenic-laced coal slurry flooded land, polluted rivers and destroyed property in Eastern Kentucky and West Virginia. The slurry had been contained in a huge reservoir by the Massey Energy Company, killing everything in the streams all the way up the Ohio River.

Jack Spadaro, head of the National Mine Health and Safety Academy (MSHA), a branch of the Department of Labor, initiated an investigation – but it was cut short when the Bush Administration, which had decided that the country needed more energy and less regulation of energy companies, took office. Spadaro had blown the whistle on his own regulators, saying they hadn’t done their job, and complained to the Labor Department’s inspector general.

In 2004, Spadaro had his office raided by government agents who went through his files, changed the locks on the doors and accused him of abusing his authority. He was demoted – silenced, some say, by the Bush Administration. His replacement, Dave Lauriski, was a former mining industry executive himself, and Massey Energy was off the hook. Spadaro had planned to cite the company for eight violations, but Laurinski cut it down to two and required just $110,000 in fines.

Years later, slurry remains on many of the properties that line the streams – it was never properly cleaned up.

7. Anniston, Alabama PCB Poisoning

Image credit: suleiman_bin_daoud

For nearly 40 years, corporate giant Monsanto routinely dumped toxic waste into West Anniston Creek while producing now-banned industrial coolants called PCBs. They also dumped millions of pounds of PCBs into open-pit landfills – and proceeded to spend decades covering it up even after confirming that fish submerged in the creek turned belly-up within seconds.

Monsanto knew exactly how dangerous PCBs were, but decided not to warn the community – instead, ordering the conclusion of a study done on rats to be changed from “slightly tumorigenic” to “does not appear to be carcinogenic.” The company had enjoyed a four-decade-long monopoly over the PCB market and, as an internal memo revealed, decided that “We can’t afford to lose one dollar of business”. In fact, to this day Monsanto hasn’t apologized or taken responsibility despite the fact that they were forced to pay $700 billion in fines in 2003.

6. Picher, Oklahoma Lead Contamination

Image credit: MSNBC

Picher, Oklahoma is a modern ghost town, all but abandoned after gigantic piles of lead-laced mine waste covered 25,000 acres and poisoned local residents. Acid mine water burned the nearby Tar Creek and turned it red. Sinkholes opened up in the mountains of mining waste, threatening to swallow the children who played there before anyone realized how dangerous it was.

The mines closed in 1970 and the area was declared a Superfund site in 1981, but its inhabitants weren’t ready to leave until 2006 when studies found that most churches, homes and the school were in serious danger of caving in. A federal buyout program allowed most of them to move elsewhere, but a few have chosen to stay behind despite the fact that there’s no water and no police. They can’t bear to let go of their town, which is so intimately tied with their own heritage.

5. Three Mile Island Nuclear Meltdown

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

During the last week of March, 2009, the world marked the 30th anniversary of the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, which resulted in the release of up to 13 million curies of radioactive noble gases and remains the most notorious accident in the history of the American nuclear power industry.

The accident, which took place at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania in 1979, was a partial core meltdown caused by failures in the non-nuclear secondary system, followed by a stuck relief valve which allowed large amounts of reactor coolant to escape. Over the months that followed, the public mislead and outright lied to about the extent of the accident and its potential effects on nearby residents’ health.

The federal government did not keep track of the health histories of the region’s residents, and some say that the state of Pennsylvania hid the health impacts of the accident, deleting cancers from the public record and misrepresenting the facts that it could not hide. Anecdotal evidence suggests a far greater toll, however, with large numbers of central Pennsylvanians suffering skin sores and lesions after being exposed to the fallout and many developing visible tumors and breathing problems. While the nuclear industry maintains that “no one died at Three Mile Island”, it has continuously refused to allow an open judicial hearing on the hundreds of cases still pending.

4. Love Canal Toxic Dump

Image credit: ABC News

In the late 1800s, William T. Love envisioned a “model city” built near a canal that would connect the two levels of the Niagara River separated by the Niagara Falls. He barely started digging the canal before being forced to abandon the project due to lack of funds, and by the 1920s, it became a dumping site for the municipality of Niagara Falls. In the 1940s, Hooker Chemical was given permission to dump 21,000 tons of industrial chemicals at the site, covering it up with dirt and vegetation in 1952.

Hooker Chemical sold this land to the local school board for one dollar, and despite the dangers of the chemicals under the soil, a school was built on the dumping site. By 1955, a 25-foot area crumbled and exposed toxic chemical drums, which filled with water during rainstorms, creating huge puddles that the children liked to play in. The walls of the canal were also breached during construction of sewers for nearby low-income and single-family residences. None of these residents knew about the history of the canal, but by the 1970s, health effects became apparent.

Lois Gibbs, a local mother, discovered the truth about the chemical waste when investigating why so many, including her son, had severe health problems. High rates of asthma, miscarriages, mental retardation and other health problems along with reports of strange odors and substances, and a survey conducted by the Love Canal Homeowners Association found that 56% of the children born from 1974-1978 had a birth defect. Gibbs and other residents struggled through a three-year battle to call attention to the problem, finally making it a national media event in 1978. The government finally relocated Love Canal families and held Hooker Chemical liable for the damages through the Superfund act. Hooker, now Occidental Petroleum, was forced to pay $129 million in retribution, and the site was officially declared clean in 2004.

3. Libby, Montana Asbestos Contamination

Image credit: Environmental Health Perspectives, The Western News

The W.R. Grace plant in Libby, Montana continually spewed asbestos over the small town for decades, sickening over 1,000 people and killing over 200. “There’s never been a case where so many people were sickened or killed by environmental crime,” says David Uhlmann, who helped lead the federal case against the chemical company.

Plumes of smoke from the factory covered the town in tremolite asbestos, a particularly toxic form linked to a number of illnesses including mesothelioma. The government stated during last year’s court case that W.R. Grace conspired to “knowingly release” the asbestos and said the company tried to hide the dangers from employees and residents. The company, which is now bankrupt after facing over 270,000 asbestos-related lawsuits, was ordered to pay $250 million to clean up Libby on March 14th, 2009. W.R. Grace is also connected to numerous other contamination incidents, including an Acton, Massachusetts Superfund site.

2. Exxon-Valdez Oil Spill

Image credit: National Geographic

By far the most notorious man-made environmental disaster in America’s history, the Exxon-Valdez oil spill of 1989 was devastating to the coast of Alaska when 10.8 million gallons of Prudhoe Bay crude oil was released into the secluded Prince William Sound, eventually covering 11,000 miles of ocean.

The oil tanker Exxon Valdez had been heading from the Valdez oil terminal in Alaska to Long Beach, California on March 23rd, 1989. The ship, which was on autopilot thanks to a couple sleep-deprived pilots, struck Bligh Reef, accidentally releasing about 1/5th of its total haul of oil. Cleanup began in April, and despite thousands of personnel helping over the next two years, it still has not been fully cleaned up 20 years later.  In 2001, a survey found oil at 58% of the 91 sites assessed.

Prince William Sound, which had been a pristine ecosystem for a wild variety of wildlife, was devastated. 250,000 sea birds, 2,800 sea otters, 300 harbor seals, 250 bald eagles, up to 22 orcas, and billions of salmon and herring eggs were killed immediately after the spill, but the oil continues to take its toll to this day. A 2006 study found that exposure to Exxon Valdez oil is still having a material impact on many shore-dwelling animals. Sea otters have yet to re-inhabit Herring Bay, and their overall numbers in the area have declined.

Exxon Mobil apologized for the spill and was fined $150 million, though $125 million was forgiven by the court in recognition of the company’s cooperation in cleanup efforts. Exxon paid an additional $100 million to the federal and state governments as restitution for damage caused to fish, wildlife and land, and agreed to pay $900 million in ten annual installments to civil claimants.

In 1994, an Anchorage jury found that Exxon acted recklessly and awarded victims of the spill $5 billion in punitive damages – an amount that was soon cut in half by an appeals court. The U.S. Supreme Court further cut the amount to $507.5 million in June 2008, but the plaintiffs still have not seen that money – Exxon is fighting the payout.

1. Tennessee Coal Ash Spill

Image credit: United Mountain Defense

Just when everybody thought the Exxon Valdez was the worst human-caused environmental disaster in U.S. history, a massive coal waste spill unleashed over a billion gallons of toxic sludge in Kingston, Tennessee. On December 22nd, 2008, a wall holding back 80 acres of sludge from the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Fossil Plant gave way, pouring coal sludge – a byproduct of the ash from coal combustion – onto at least 300 acres of surrounding land. 15 homes were destroyed, and many more sit on land that is now contaminated with arsenic, mercury and lead.

TVA and state inspection reports show that the Tennessee Valley Authority knew for the past decade about leaks at the ash retention pond and failed to act. Worse yet, they failed to warn citizens about the dangers. 8 days after the spill occurred, TVA finally shed some light on just how serious the situation really was:

“In just one year, the plant’s byproducts included 45,000 pounds of arsenic, 49,000 pounds of lead, 1.4 million pounds of barium, 91,000 pounds of chromium and 140,000 pounds of manganese. Those metals can cause cancer, liver damage and neurological complications, among other health problems. And the holding pond … contained many decades’ worth of these deposits.”

Still, even as workers protected by HAZMAT suits picked through the sludge, the residents whose homes were affected by the spill were being told by TVA that they were safe. Meanwhile, TVA was arresting activists who were trying to warn citizens of the area about the dangers.

Despite their obvious culpability, the Tennessee Valley Authority is now seeking to have all resulting lawsuits against them dismissed. The utility believes that their own responsibility is to clean up the spill, not to pay damages to those who were affected by it. TVA has bought 71 properties tainted by the spill but rejected 166 more claims.

It will likely be many years before the public knows the full extent of the damage of this coal ash spill, but it has called attention to the lack of coal ash regulation and as a result, the EPA has finally indicated plans to get tougher on coal.

Droughts, Floods, Fires & Oil Spills Plague Australia

Can Australia get a break? The people of this country have had enough. Devastating fires, droughts, floods and crocodile problems have already killed thousands of people, wiped out the livelihoods of many more and destroyed homes and businesses all over the country. Now, they’re dealing with an oil spill after a cargo ship got caught in cyclonic weather. Large slicks of oil mixed with fertilizer are washing up on beaches along the Sunshine Coast and at Moreton Island.

From Yahoo News:

As the cargo fell in huge swells caused by tropical cyclone Hamish, it punctured the ship’s hull, releasing 30 tonnes of oil into Moreton Bay, near Queensland’s state capital Brisbane.

A slick 15 kilometres (9.3 miles) long and two metres (6.6 feet) wide was washing onto popular tourist beaches as the maritime safety authority launched an investigation into what it said was the state’s worst spill in 30 years.

Watkinson said it would take more than a week to clean up the spill, with trucks and excavators removing contaminated sand from the beaches.

“(The oil) is quite heavy in some spots — I’ve just been down there for a walk myself and have come back and it’s caked all over over my thongs (flip-flops) and all over my feet,” said Marcoola beach lifeguard David McLean.

“As you walk along it sticks to the bottom of your shoe like glue.”

Even worse, experts say the fertilizer might cause algal blooms that could suffocate fish and kill natural habitats. Fertilizer seeping into the water is a major cause of ocean dead zones, vast areas of oxygen-starved water where most life can’t survive.

The spill is even bigger than first reported, and the beaches have now been declared ‘disaster zones’. National parks bore the brunt of the damage. So far, a handful of birds covered in oil are the only wildlife known to be affected, but wildlife authorities warn that it will get worse the longer the oil sits.

All this, and climate scientists warn that Australia will be among the first to see some of the most extreme effects of global warming. Scary. These are brave, hardy people, and they’ll fight to stay in their homes – but nobody could blame them if they decided to jump ship and head to another country.

Link [Yahoo News]
Photo credit: The Telegraph

TVA Spill Update: Worried Residents and More Coal Spills

Over three weeks after the December 22nd TVA coal ash spill in Harriman, Tennessee, residents of the affected area wait for answers – is their drinking water safe? Where will they go? Underneath the wet, toxic mess in their backyards is once-fertile land, now contaminated and uninhabitable. As workers protected by HAZMAT suits pick through the sludge, the devastated, coughing residents whose homes and property have been destroyed wonder if they should be wearing protective gear, too.

Nashville Scene News reports:

What will happen when it dries and whips over the countryside, spirited by the wind coursing through these East Tennessee hills?

But there’s not much they can do. Their homes are all but worthless; no one’s shopping for fixer-uppers on a hazardous waste site. And without ample nest eggs, few have the money to leave.

“The most we could hope for is TVA buying our property,” Brenda Bailey says. “It’s ruined. We don’t even have the money to relocate.”

Residents of areas where TVA plants are located are torn between gratitude for the thousands of jobs that TVA has provided in their area and fears about pollution. Some locals are holding on to the hope that the Kingston spill was truly an accident and was not caused by TVA cutting corners to save money, while others angrily decry what they see as the sacrifice of their safety for higher profits.

One week ago today, as much as 10,000 gallons of coal waste spilled into Widows Creek in northeastern Alabama – at another plant owned by TVA. Claiming that it poses no threat to human health, TVA blamed a leaking pipe for the calcium sulfate spill and dismissed concerns about whether drinking water in the area was affected. Lab test results are expected on Monday.

The Huffington Post is reporting that yet another coal spill has occurred – this time, rather than coal ash sludge, it’s 110 tons of coal spilled next to New River in Scott County, Tennessee after a train overturned. This third spill is not connected to TVA, but does provide another sobering reminder of the danger that coal poses to the human health and the environment.

TennesseeGreen.com is reporting on the reaction of environmental groups and members of Congress:

U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works

“The Tennessee Valley Authority has a lot to answer for – the first step is to prevent further spills and damage to communities around its plants. I have asked the TVA for a complete assessment of the safety of its waste disposal sites and their plans for upgrading those sites. This second pollution spill must be a wakeup message to the TVA and to the U.S. EPA that the current situation is unacceptable.”

Bruce Nilles, Director of the Sierra Club’s National Coal Campaign

“Even as residents in Roane County Tennessee are still trying to grasp the full impact of the Kingston disaster, communities in northeastern Alabama are now threatened with a new toxic coal waste spill.

“While initial accounts indicate that this latest spill is smaller than the Tennessee disaster, we hope that TVA and EPA have learned from the Tennessee disaster and move quickly to protect residents….

“Clearly current regulations are not adequate. We need the Environmental Protection Agency to start regulating coal ash before more communities are put at risk.”

The good news is, the US House of Representatives is moving forward on fly ash regulation after the Kingston spill made the entire country aware of just how dangerous this coal waste product can be. U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall of West Virginia filed legislation on Wednesday requiring that federal standards be put in place for coal ash ponds and other members of Congress are questioning why the EPA has not regulated coal ash in the past. Obama’s EPA nominee, Lisa Jackson, pledges to assess the situation in depth and look at strict regulation.

TVA has also been ordered by a federal judge to clean up four coal-fired plants in Eastern Tennessee and Alabama, which have been fouling the air in nearby Western North Carolina. Emissions from the plant were found to unreasonably interfere with the rights of North Carolina citizens, affecting health, the local economy and natural resources. The plants will now be required to use year-round pollution controls.

The coal industry must be held responsible for the damage they’re doing. We can’t continue to let them get away with things like this.

If you want to help the cleanup effort in Tennessee, please contact United Mountain Defense. They are currently in need of donations for HAZMAT respirators and independent air monitors.

Link [Nashville Scene News] + [The Huffington Post] + [TennesseeGreen] + [Knox News] + [CNN]
Photo credit: United Mountain Defense

Tennessee Coal Ash Spill Spurs Worries Around the Country

If anything could open the eyes of the entire nation to the dangers of coal, the Tennessee TVA spill should be it. When more than a billion gallons burst a wall at a power plant in Harriman, Tennessee on December 22nd, just over two weeks ago, it swallowed up most of the town, destroying homes and leaving behind a mess of toxic sludge. Many wonder whether the area will ever really be able to recover, as residents worry about the safety of their water and air.

Those who saw the sludge come barreling at their homes described it as a ‘tsunami’, and people who saw the spill’s effects firsthand said the land resembled that of the fictional Mordor, from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. It’s been said that the Tennessee coal ash spill may be the worst environmental disaster in this nation’s history, and as details have emerged about how the coal combustion waste was stored by the Tennessee Valley Authority, people around the country worry that it could happen to their town, too.

100 miles away in Gallatin, Tennessee, coal ash is stored the same way as it was in Harriman, albeit on a smaller scale.

From the Tennessean:

Betty Johnson of Gallatin lives more than 100 miles from East Tennessee’s massive ash sludge spill. But to her and her neighbors, the disaster hit a little too close to home.

That’s because they’re in the shadow of another Tennessee Valley Authority power plant — which uses the same method to store coal ash as the one that failed at the Kingston plant last month, spilling tons of potentially toxic sludge into the surrounding community.
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“It happened there, it can happen here,” said Johnson, who has lived on Odom’s Bend Road near the Gallatin Fossil Plant for 10 years. “It’s always a concern when you live near any kind of plant.”

TVA and state inspection reports show that the Tennessee Valley Authority knew for the past decade of leaks at the ash retention pond. The Chattanooga Times Free Press reports that in both 2003 and 2006, leaks in the landfill where the wet fly ash was dumped were so bad that TVA repaired drainage and dikes around the retention ponds and, for nearly a year and a half, TVA suspended adding any more ash deposits to the landfill in an attempt to let the dredge cell dry out and stabilize.

Environmental groups are demanding that the Environmental Protection Agency set national standards for ash removal and regulate coal residue as a hazardous material. It’s currently treated as an industrial waste, and disposal is regulated by state agencies. A congressional hearing will be conducted on Thursday about the Kingston spill and the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will hear at least one call from an environmental leader who wants fly ash to be more strictly regulated by the EPA.

Activists have been disseminating information about the dangers of coal ash to ensure that citizens are properly informed, since many feel that the TVA has tried to downplay the toxicity of the sludge. Independent tests on the water quality at the spill site and downstream revealed arsenic levels 300 times what federal laws allow and all samples contained “elevated levels of arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury, nickel and thallium”.

On December 30th, 8 days after the spill occurred, the TVA finally released some information about the Kingston Fossil Plant waste generation.

“In just one year, the plant’s byproducts included 45,000 pounds of arsenic, 49,000 pounds of lead, 1.4 million pounds of barium, 91,000 pounds of chromium and 140,000 pounds of manganese. Those metals can cause cancer, liver damage and neurological complications, among other health problems. And the holding pond … contained many decades’ worth of these deposits.”

The coal industry is, of course, frantically trying to keep Americans under the impression that coal can be clean. Coal industry advocates continue to insist that Kingston is an isolated event despite the fact that the EPA has recorded smaller ash pond leaks at about two dozen other sites. Previous ash pond leaks have killed hundreds of fish, yet industry leaders claim there are no proven instances of significant dangers to human health.

Such attempts to placate the public may not go over as well as they have in the past, however. Appalachia residents are more concerned than anyone, given that they live so close to so many coal mines and plants, and they’re demanding action in their own towns.

From Alternet:

Long before this latest disaster, citizens in the Coal River valley in southern West Virginia have pointed to the threats of massive sludge ponds in their neighborhood: Brushy Fork, which contains 9 billion gallons of sludge and the 2.8 billion gallons that sit above Marsh Fork Elementary School, which according to reports written between 1998 and 2005 by the Mine Safety and Health Administration, is at risk for failure which could fatally impact 1,000 people downstream. From the Coal River Valley — and across the nation — the people cry for Marsh Fork Elementary to be moved away from the toxic waste dump which has accrued hundreds of repeated violations. But West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin, III has refused this community’s requests. Massey Energy, which runs the operation, assures West Virginians that their dam is safe and inspected regularly. But that is also what TVA assured the people of Kingston.

The Tennessee Valley Authority must be held accountable for this tragedy, and we must not let the coal industry lull us back into a false sense of safety. Let this be a warning once and for all of just how dangerous coal is, to our health and that of the environment. It’s time to move on.

Link [Tennessean] + [Chattanooga Times Free Press] + [Alternet]

Tennessee Coal Ash Disaster Dwarfs Exxon Spill

One of the worst environmental disasters in recent memory has unfolded over the last week in Kingston, Tennessee, where a massive coal waste spill has unleashed over a billion gallons of potentially toxic sludge into the Clinch River and surrounding land. Worst yet, the Tennessee Valley Authority – the nation’s largest government-owned utility, which owns the plant where the spill occurred – failed to properly warn residents in the area of the toxins the sludge contains.

The spill is nearly 50 times as big as the famous 1989 Exxon-Valdez spill in Alaska. It occurred around 1am on December 22nd when a wall holding back 80 acres of sludge from the TVA’s Fossil Plant gave way.  Eight days later, the TVA has yet to release sampling data from the ash pile, and they’re actually trying to claim that the fly ash is not toxic.

From CNN:

The sludge is a byproduct of the ash from coal combustion. A retention site at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s power plant in Kingston, about 40 miles west of Knoxville, contained the waste until a wall breached last Monday, sending the sludge downhill to damage 15 homes and cover at least 300 acres.

All the residents were evacuated, and three homes were deemed uninhabitable, according to the TVA.

The TVA’s initial estimate for the spill tripled from 1.8 million cubic yards, or more than 360 million gallons of sludge, to 5.4 million cubic yards, or more than 1 billion gallons.

Aerial footage of the spill, from the TVA website:

The cause of the dam break is still under investigation. TVA has vowed to clean up the mess but says it could take months or even years. Meanwhile, residents fear that toxic elements could end up in their drinking water. They’re also concerned that once the mire dries out, fly ash will become airborne. The EPA has found elevated levels of arsenic in surface water, and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation said elevated contaminant levels were found in the immediate area of the spill.

Coal ash contains heavy metals including arsenic, mercury and lead. United Mountain Defense, a non-profit environmental organization based in Knoxville, Tennessee, has a fact sheet on the toxicity of coal ash based on 2007 EPA findings. The fact sheet details an EPA assessment that found extremely high risks to human health and the environment from the disposal of coal ash in waste ponds and landfills. The chart below illustrates the cancer risk of exposure to coal ash compared to that of smoking a pack of cigarettes a day.

The Examiner reports that two United Mountain Defense activists trying to take photos of the spill were arrested and detained on Saturday. It’s not clear why TVA police detained the two men, since they were on public land.

David Cooper and Matt Landon who were detained by the TVA police planned to take water samples but were just taking photographs of the spill at the time of their arrest. TVA has not responded to requests for more information on the incident.

David Cooper commented, “…the dust and airborne contaminants from the coal ash are dangerous.  Workers on the clean up site should be wearing respiratory protection.  This could cause breathing problems for the workers like we saw at the World Trade Center.”  He also went on to say he was sorry that he and his fellow activist had caused problems for TVA, and that their “concern is for the safety of nearby residents and their families.”

David Cooper gave The Huffington Post a first-hand account of how UMD has been coordinating a citizen response to the disaster, handling the media, and testing the water. Of his detainment, he says:

When we tried to take pictures of the sign, we were quickly accosted by an agitated TVA official wearing agreen vest, who demanded we leave immediately. We drove on to the next checkpoint, where we were detained for almost an hour. The TVA official called TVA police and demanded that we be arrested. Fortunately the local ABC News affiliate (Channel 6) was there to capture the whole scene of our detention, and we were eventually allowed to leave.

Clean coal, my ass. This is just another heartbreaking example of how toxic coal really is. The citizens of Kingston and surrounding areas will be dealing with the effects of this spill for years into the future, and the way TVA is downplaying the effects is reprehensible.

If you want to help, the United Mountain Defense has details on their blog, TVA Coal is Killing Tennessee.

Link [CNN] + [The Examiner] + [The Huffington Post] + [UMD]
Photo credit: UMD

Rain-Swollen Lake Bursts Bank and Disappears

Nature doesn’t mess around. One look at this photo makes it clear how much power the forces of nature really hold, and how helpless we can be to their destruction. The photo shows two employees of Tommy Bartlett’s Water Show trying to clean debris and dead fish out of the empty bed of Lake Delton in Wisconsin, which was once a picturesque 267-acre vacation destination.

From the Chicago Tribune:

Weekend rains of biblical proportions dumped so much water into Lake Delton that it literally burst its banks.

Tens of thousands of gallons of lake water barreled through the woods, taking with it a roadway, several houses, boats, fish and lake bed. It emptied into the nearby Wisconsin River and was gone in hours.

On Tuesday morning, some 24 hours after the catastrophe, the massive lake is nearly drained. The lake is a muddy moonscape of cracked earth. Fish bake in the sun, flopping until their deaths. Mounds of dead fish are piled high. The shoreline is jagged and cracked. Boats hang in the air suspended by what is left of the docks. In parts, the little water that is left meanders like a silent brook. The roadway and earth that held the river back is now a grand canyon.

Lake Delton was formerly a lively scene of water skiing, fishing, and other recreation. State officials have vowed to refill the lake as soon as possible, but residents are afraid the lake will never be the same again. And it may not – the lake was artificially created by damming Dell Creek. Sounds like nature took things into its own hands and turned the man-made lake back into a creek, as it was originally.

Link [Chicago Tribune]
Photo credit: Chicago Tribune/ E. Jason Wambsgans

Oil Drilling, Not Earthquake, Caused Deadly Java Mud Volcano

Two years ago, a mud volcano in East Java, Indonesia caused millions of dollars worth of damage and displaced more than 30,000 people. That mud volcano – which is still spewing huge volumes of mud today – has found to have been caused by oil drilling, rather than an earthquake as was originally thought. The video below shows the mud flow, which reaches volumes of 100,000 cubic meters per day – enough to fill 53 Olympic-size swimming pools.

From the Environmental News Network:

Graduate student Maria Brumm and Prof Michael Manga of University of California, Berkeley undertook a systematic study to test the claims that the eruption was caused by this earthquake. They found that none of the ways earthquakes trigger eruptions could have played a role at Lusi.

Prof Michael Manga, of University of California, Berkeley, said: “We have known for hundreds of years that earthquakes can trigger eruptions. In this case, the earthquake was simply too small and too far away.”

The new report concludes the effect of the earthquake was minimal because the change in pressure underground due to the earthquake would have been tiny. Instead, scientists are “99 per cent” certain drilling operations were to blame.

Prof Davies, of Durham University’s Centre for Research into Earth Energy Systems (CeREES) explained: “We show that the day before the mud volcano started there was a huge ”˜kick’ in the well, which is an influx of fluid and gas into the wellbore. We show that after the kick the pressure in the well went beyond a critical level.”

Naturally, the oil company denied that their drilling was responsible for the environmental disaster.

The Java mud volcano is the largest in the world, and is beginning to show signs of potentially catastrophic collapse which could sag the vent area by up to 150 meters in the next decade. Mud volcanoes usually occur naturally, caused by geo-excreted liquids and gases.

Link [ENN] + [YouTube] + [Wikipedia]