TVA CEO takes Heat on Coal Ash Spill -- Senate Hearing calls for EPA Regulation

The head of the Tennessee Valley Authority pledged the federal electric utility would do a "first-rate job" cleaning up the mess left from last month's massive coal ash spill. But at a Congressional committee hearing to examine the spill he faced sharp criticism from senators unconvinced by his promises.

"You need to have a plan to clean this spill up and you don't have it yet," said Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat and chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which conducted the hearing. "People will never feel safe there again."

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To minimize dust and erosion, TVA is spreading grass seed and fertilizer, as well as a liquid dust suppressant on the ashy sludge. Boxer said TVA should be doing more than it currently is doing to clean up the area. "This isn't a harmless mud," she said. "Seeding the ground with grass is not a permanent solution. Cleanup can be done right or it can be a ticking timebomb."

TVA President and CEO Tom Kilgore testified that the utility is committed to completely remediating the contaminated area and will work to compensate affected residents. Boxer pressed Kilgore on TVA's lack of a plan to deal with two river coves popular with residents. "We want to recover all that we can recover," Kilgore said. While TVA does not have plans to clean up the coves, the utility doesn't have "plans not to," he said.

"That's not an answer," Boxer responded. "That's not cleanup."

Boxer also questioned Kilgore about reports that TVA had been warned of the potential failure of the impoundment wall at least twice in the past five years, but balked at a $25 million project to secure the site. "You went with the cheapest fix, and now you have the most expensive problem," Boxer said. "The cost of that $25 million is going to seem like pennies compared to what it is going to cost to clean this up." Early estimates of cleanup costs are as high as $250 million.

Boxer said the spill highlights the need for federal regulations to govern the disposal of toxic coal ash, noting that state regulatory efforts have been inconsistent at best. "For nearly three decades, EPA has been looking the issue of how to regulate combustion waste," Boxer said. "The federal government has the power to regulate these wastes, and inaction has allowed this enormous volume of toxic material to go largely unregulated," she said.

Boxer said the ash shouldn't be held in ponds, where it can contaminate water supplies. Coal ash also has been placed in abandoned mines and quarries. In other cases, dry ash is held in lined landfills.

Stephen Smith, the director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, called for federal regulation of coal combustion waste, saying that voluntary industry practices and state rules haven't prevented the contamination of land and water near disposal sites. "We absolutely need to keep ash out of the water," Smith said. "Storing it wet is unacceptable."

"It is critically important that protective standards for coal ash waste be established," Boxer said. "The EPA doesn't even need any legislation from us. They have the ability to regulate this and I see it is coming. I hope it is coming."

The full report is here.

Toxic Coal Ash Needs Federal Regulation

Hundreds of Coal Ash Dumps Lack Regulation -- NY Times
The coal ash pond that ruptured and sent a billion gallons of toxic sludge across 300 acres of East Tennessee last month was only one of more than 1,300 similar dumps across the United States — most of them unregulated and unmonitored — that contain billions more gallons of fly ash and other byproducts of burning coal.

Like the one in Tennessee, most of these dumps, which reach up to 1,500 acres, contain toxic heavy metals like arsenic, lead, mercury and selenium, which are considered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to be a threat to water supplies and human health. Yet they are not subject to any federal regulation, which experts say could have prevented the spill, and there is little monitoring of their effects on the surrounding environment.

Contaminants and waste products that once spewed through the coal plants’ smokestacks are increasingly captured in the form of solid waste, held in huge piles in 46 states, near cities like Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Tampa, Fla., and on the shores of Lake Erie (near Buffalo), Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River.

As the EPA has studied whether to regulate coal ash waste, the cases of drinking wells and surface water contaminated by leaching from the dumps or the use of the ash has swelled. In 2007, an EPA report identified 63 sites in 26 states where the water was contaminated by heavy metals from such dumps, including three other Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) dumps. See the Map, below:
The full NY Times report is here.

On January 8, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is holding a hearing on the Tennessee coal ash disaster and the TVA. Potential hazards lurk in coal ash dumps across the country. Let Congress know that coal ash contains hazardous waste that must be subject to Federal regulation in order to protect human health and welfare as well as the environment. Tennessee residents affected by the coal ash spill let the Senate Committee Chair, Barbara Boxer, know. They presented her with a mason jar full of the TVA coal ash sludge.

Coal Ash Disaster -- Local News

Local News from Roane County, Tennessee

• Spilled coal ash carries poisons: Arsenic levels are 149 times the limit for drinking water, according to Environmental Protection Agency results from the first round of tests on river water containing the coal ash sludge that flooded 300 acres of Roane County on Dec. 22. Long-term exposure to the coal ash pose health concerns for humans, as well as for fish stocks and local wildlife. Full story.
  

• Doctor's orders: relocate from ash spill: A Roane County couple residing one mile from the TVA ash spill does not want to take any chances when it comes to their unborn child. Neither does her OB-GYN, who wrote a note asking TVA to relocate the couple. Full story.

• TVA to spread seed and straw at Kingston spill site: To contain spilled ash from a failed coal ash retention pond, TVA says it will spray seed and straw in a process similar to the one used by highway departments to provide ground cover. After the seed is sprayed, it will appear green in color for about two months. [OMG: Green coal ash!] Full story.
  

• Officials say they didn't push Roane schools' water plan: Roane County Schools to use bottled water for food preparation when students return to class beginning Monday, January 5. Full story.
  

• TVA inspection points to prior issues with ash pond: An inspection report released in early 2008 that looked at the fly ash pond where a dike failed at TVA's Kingston Fossil Plant showed inspectors have noted problems at the pond for years. Full story.

• Erin Brockovich to come to Roane County: Environmental law consultant Erin Brockovich expects a class-action lawsuit will come out of the TVA sludge slide. Brockovich was involved in class-action lawsuit that led to a $333 million settlement in the 1990's and inspired the academy award-winning movie "Erin Brockovich," starring Julia Roberts. Audio interview with the real Erin Brockovich is here.

And finally, an Editorial Cartoon from the Chattanooga Times Free Press:

Perfect!

Environmental Disaster at Coal Power Facility

An environmental disaster occurred at a coal-fired power plant in Harriman, Tennessee on Dec. 22. A dam holding 5.4 Million of cubic yards of waste Coal Ash slurry gave way and the contents smashed through a Harriman neighborhood, knocking one home off its foundation, damaging 11 others, and toppling trees and power lines. It left 4 to 6 feet of gray ash muck across a 300 to 400 acre area, draining into nearby rivers that supply drinking water downstream to millions of people. Coal ash contains toxic heavy metals which can cause cancer and neurological problems, and are used in rat poison and insecticides. [click image to enlarge]

The coal ash dam broke at the Kingston Fossil Plant, a Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) power station on the banks of the Emory River, which feeds into the Clinch River near the confluence of the Tennessee River. Many of the coal ash chunks released from the dam were huge, the size of boulders and icebergs. A map of the area showing the coal plant (fire icon), 40 acre ash storage ponds (grey area), dam breach (thick, red line), derailed coal train (train icon) rivers (wave icons) and flow directions (red arrows) is below (click icons, shaded areas, line and arrows for photos and more information).

View Larger Map
TVA authorities initially issued no warnings about the potential chemical dangers of the spill, saying there was as yet no evidence of toxins. "Most of that material is inert," said Gilbert Francis Jr., a TVA spokesman. "It does have some heavy metals within it, but it's not toxic or anything."

Residents were told by the TVA to boil their water, but environmentalists warned residents that boiling would not remove the toxic heavy metals. Subsequent testing of river water near the spill showed elevated levels of lead and thallium, which can cause birth defects and nervous and reproductive system disorders, said John Moulton, a TVA spokesman. Lead is known to be a potent neurotoxin, and thallium is highly toxic and is used in rat poisons and insecticides.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is currently performing independent tests of the waterways affected by the spill as well as those upstream of the spill for comparison.

Chemicals and metals from coal ash have contaminated drinking water in several states, made people and animals sick in New Mexico, and tainted fish in Texas and elsewhere, according to Lisa Evans, an attorney with Earthjustice, a nonprofit national environmental law firm that follows the issue. It's an easy problem to fix, and at the very least should be placed in lined, state-of-the-art landfills, she said.

One Harriman resident expressed concern about the affects on her family's health after breathing the coal ash dust once the water in it dries out. TVA President and CEO Tom Kilgore said that people should wash their clothes if it gets on them and that the real concern would be for the material to be airborne. That wouldn't happen because it's rainy and damp, he said.

Activists for years have pushed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to regulate coal ash, such as this, as a hazardous waste. Jeff Stant, with the Environmental Integrity Project, said ash is the country's second-largest industrial waste stream, after mining wastes. "EPA has shirked its responsibility to do something about this for years. The law says EPA has to manage the wastes in a way to make sure they don't pose any imminent danger to health and the environment. EPA has failed to do that." This is not the first time that the EPA has been slow to deal with Coal-related hazards detrimental to public health and the environment.

The EPA needs to take bold action on hazardous coal ash waste and this environmental disaster. EPA needs to ensure a rapid and safe cleanup of the coal ash spill, and to regulate coal ash storage now. EPA must Protect the public from potential health risks and Protect the Environment, including property and homes (see photo, below). That's their job! Let the Obama Transition Team know how you feel about this environmental disaster by sending them an e-mail message: Click Here.

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One only needs to look at the photos taken around the coal ash dam breach at the Kingston Power Plant to realize that coal will Never, Ever, be clean. We need to shift to real clean energy sources like solar, wind and geothermal.