Could Toxic Spill Be Warning Sign?

CBS Evening News: Congress Grills TVA About Massive Ash Spill; Ominous Warning About Similar Unregulated Ash Ponds

(CBS)  In a landscape so blackened, so altered by a billion gallons of spilled coal ash, Crystelle Flinn tells CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann she can only guess where her house once stood.

"Heartbreaking," she said. "It's heartbreaking."

Thursday she watched a bulldozer knock down her former home's ruins.

What's the most heartbreaking part of it for her?

"Knowing that the property and the land will never be the same," Flinn said.

On Thursday in Washington, a U.S. Senate committee grilled Tom Kilgore, the CEO of the Tennessee Valley Authority.

"You've got to clean up your act," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. "Literally."

Three days before Christmas, a retention pond collapsed outside a TVA coal-burning power plant in Kingston.

TVA officials knew the pond had problems - but in 2003, rejected a $25 million overhaul.

"The most expensive solution wasn’t chosen," said Kilgore. "And obviously, that looks bad for us."

The falling mountain of ash overwhelmed everything in its path - after a wall that was two-thirds of a mile across burst at the retention pond.

The federal government doesn't regulate such coast ash ponds. Neither does the state of Tennessee. The TVA has been policing itself.

In many states, it's no different.

It's estimated there are 280 wet coal ash ponds throughout America, like one outside Pittsburgh. It covers 130 acres, 30 times the size of the TVA Kingston pond.

Many of these ponds are unregulated by anyone.

In the shadow of the Tennessee plant, the Murphy family worries: will the river in their backyard ever be safe to swim again?

"I mean, we're less than a mile from the actual spill," said Jill Murphy. "How do they know what is safe?"

This cleanup could cost ten times more than the pond overhaul the TVA once rejected.

"They still took the cheap way out and it cost us our present, some of our past and a lot of our future," Flinn said.

It's a future that now includes a push for federal regulation.

"I assumed a lot that I shouldn't have assumed. Those days are over," Boxer said.

One thing's not over - the cleanup of the toxic ash. It will go on for months.

[eggy1620]

Government now hiring . . . coal ash pond inspectors. No experience necessary since no experience exists. Wallow up to the trough of public service!

[clathrate]

Another scare story, unfortunate but hardly an end of the world problem. Fly ash is about as dangerous as sand. A little information the alleged "journalist" should have provided......

Posted by louiville2 at 09:23 AM : Jan 09, 2009

Well, except for the fact that your "information" is completely wrong. Fly ash is anything but harmless. It contains levels of mercury, arsenic, lead, and other heavy metals that are not safe whatsoever. then again, maybe you enjoy getting bladder cancer and CNS disorders.

Fly ash can only be safely contained if it is used as a pozzolan in concrete or if vitrified, both of which are not cheap. Other than that, it''s just a public health menace.

[lewiston14]

"'''' .. they come to collect the taxes every year, the bus comes by several times a night"

Morph my first offical post to you. NOBODY is collecting a cent from me. Not in over 10 years.

[lewiston14]

Coal is in our future for a very long time to come same as the oil sands in Canada. Between both of us we have more energy them most of the world. Your little green electric are a nice idea but not at $60,000. What fool would buy one except the rich who just want to show off to their friends. Why do you need a 4 cylinder super charged gas engine to run a generator to keep it going after 40 miles? I make 5000 watts with a 10 HP single cylinder engine. I might not be able to go 60 MPH but it would get me home. You don%u2019t need to go from 0 to 60 in 3.2 seconds in your little green car. They are getting this all wrong. 40 miles with enough back up to get you home for less then $15,000 is green. If companies or dealers think they are going to sell $60,000 little green cars they are in for a real shock. They can not even sell what they got in their lots.

[lewiston14]

louiville2: Thanks for the list of uses this coal ash could be used for. I never knew there were so many. Now we have to get the teamsters and unions to agree to use it. It took million of years to make so it had to have some value after the fact.. L

This is green that is a good idea.

[bobbyduck1]

Another scare story, unfortunate but hardly an end of the world problem. Fly ash is about as dangerous as sand. A little information the alleged "journalist" should have provided......

Posted by louiville2 at 09:23 AM : Jan 09, 2009

No doubt the folks who just got their houses buried and bulldozed might disagree with your assessment. If you could see past your local economic concerns and just for a second take a world view, you might have to acknowledge how serious this is.

280 unregulated ticking time bombs spread across America, some that dwarf the one that just ruined the lives of these folks, and you advocate burying our heads in the sand.....

Sine the fly ash is so harmless, you should trade your property with one of the families that just got theirs swamped "harmless sand". Then they could live their lives again and you could build a luxury home on your new beach!

[wdrussell1]

You turn your watchdogs into lapdogs and you pay the price.
Take off the muzzles and let their teeth show again.

[lewiston14]

What my problem is the use of the words of and or. It might be because the f and r keys are next to each other but I rather think it is just sloppy proof reading on my part but in a forum it dont count to much so ill ta 2 U latr

[lewiston14]

Electric? Is that similar to electricity?

Posted by Evian_Ycnan

Yes Evian in a way you are correct but because you thought of this I checked last months bill. From the name on the header to the entire bill itself the word electric is used. The word elecricity is nowhere to be found so my choice of term could be looked at as correct.

[louiville2]

Another scare story, unfortunate but hardly an end of the world problem. Fly ash is about as dangerous as sand. A little information the alleged "journalist" should have provided.

"The reuse of fly ash as an engineering material primarily stems from its pozzolanic nature, spherical shape, and relative uniformity. Fly ash recycling, in descending frequency, includes usage in:

* Portland cement and grout
* Embankments and structural fill
* Waste stabilization and solidification
* Raw feed for cement clinkers
* Mine reclamation
* Stabilization of soft soils
* Road subbase
* Aggregate
* Flowable fill
* Mineral filler in asphaltic concrete
* Other applications include cellular concrete, geopolymers, roofing tiles, paints, metal castings, and filler in wood and plastic products."