Activist John Wathen on the scene at the worst domestic environmental disaster in the United States since the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince Williams Sound, Alaska, in March, 1989.
The Tennessee Valley Authority doesn’t want you to know how bad the coal ash spill was in the Clinch River in East Tennessee, during the Christmas holidays, 2008, when the public was not paying close attention to the news. We are packing for a trip to Old Rocky Top now and will post a followup report from the scene over the next couple of weeks.
Locust Fork News-Journal Joins Call for Investigation
A waste pond at a coal-burning power plant in northeast Alabama ruptured early Friday about 30 miles southwest of Chattanooga, Tennessee, according to the Associated Press and other news organizations, the second ash spill in less than a month at a TVA plant.
“For the second time in less than one month, the citizens served by the Tennessee Valley Authority have been unnecessarily exposed to a multitude of health risks due to a failure of a coal-ash pond,” said Adam Snyder, executive director of Conservation Alabama. “This unfortunate incident highlights TVA’s over-reliance on coal for energy production and a lack of adequate health safety standards and enforcement. Conservation Alabama calls on Congress, TVA, and EPA to not only conduct an exhaustive evaluation of its current standards, but also to put into action whatever means necessary to ensure that the citizens of Alabama are not put in harm’s way again.”
On December 22, a spill in Kingston, Tenn., dumped 5.4 million cubic yards of sludge across 400 acres, burying homes, buildings, and heavy equipment, as reported in the story below.
The Locust Fork News-Journal joins the call for a full investigation by the incoming Obama administration and new regulations for the waste from these dirty coal-fired power plants. Perhaps power generators such as TVA and Southern Company should be forced to pay in some way for the newer, greener energy sources we are going to need for an environmentally sustainable and economically viable future.
During the Bush years, we specialized in covering the politicization of the U.S. justice system as much as any news organization. Our archives are about the most comprehensive for anyone researching the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, and the original case against Richard Scrushy, which Glynn Wilson covered for The New York Times.
