Report: Tenn. Plant On "Verge Of Failure"

(AP)  A consultant's report says a massive coal ash spill in Tennessee resulted from a combination of factors that developed over five decades of operation.

Engineer Bill Walton of AECOM USA Inc. told a news conference Thursday that the huge coal ash storage facility at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston Fossil Plant was "on the verge of failure" for some time before it actually collapsed in December.

But he said it took a combination of elements - from the high water content of the ash to the increasing height of the ash pile to the construction of sloping dikes over wet ash - that led to the release of more than 5 million cubic yards of ash into the Emory River and a lakeside community.

Walton noted in particular the existence of a 6-inch thick bottom layer of ash and silt or "slime" that began to creep and propelled the earthen structure's collapse.

[skeetchamp]

this is what you get when you make Bush president for 8 years.

[octavianfdlr]

"A consultant's report says a massive coal ash spill in Tennessee resulted from a combination of factors that developed over five decades of operation"
-The article

Who can tell the difference between eight years and five decades? Would not skeetchamp's comment would have been just as accurate if it were:
this is what you get when you make Clinton president for 8 years.
this is what you get when you make Carter president for 4 years.
this is what you get when you make Johnson president for 6 years.
this is what you get when you make Kennedy president for life.
(not to mention Tricky Dickey, Reagan, and the other Bush, and our huge "supporting" cast of senators and other representatives)

[quapawsix]

When are we going to get it fossil fuels are old world we need 21st century technology to solve our energy, not coal or Oil. It's dump sites like this that eventually become a serious hazardous to the ecology. If the ecology fails we are in big trouble. If keep putting trash in your bed you eventually go extinct. It's time for us to step up and take responsibility for our actions.

[whitemale08]

The problem is 'money'.

I lived in 3rd world countries before and trust the wxact same stories lke this one are standard occurences over there.

It's what happens when you divert trillions of dwindling tax revenue to bail out trillions of absolutely worthless derivatives and credit-defaultbased @Goldman Sucks and JP Morgan.

When Ex-President and Wall Street/City of London puppet Carlos Andres Perez of Venezuela handed over the petroleum-based economy to IMF/World Bank,

the first thing the IMF told him to do was take his 'cut' and live a lavish life in Miami and bail out the banks connected with LTC (Long Term Capital)

before he went into exile, since many Wall Street/City of London swindlers were 'counter-parties' to the billions of worthless derivatives and credit-default swaps @LTC.

Hugo Chavez, who at the time was a military commander, saw what Perez was up to and plotted a failed coup de tat against the Venezuelan gov ernment.

Perez was impeached and went into exile leaving once prosperous cities with no money to maintain sewage systems and parts for heavy equiment for roads and infrastructure.

The evidence that the economy had blown out was evident everywhere with people living make-shift houses all along the hillsides of major cities with sewage running in the middle of the streets.

We are already sharing that destiny with Venezuela because too many suckers here in America believe that the Rothschilds and the Rockefellers are entitled to their untold trillions by bailing out their worthless derivatives and credit-default swaps.

[quapawsix]

Well said and true

[dumbspammers]

What we need is to put the coal ash back in the mines. We dug it out, for crying out loud, we can put it back!

Of course, nuclear plants don't produce millions of tons of ash, and we routinely bury their "ash" already. If France can manage to get 85% of their power from nuclear plants, you would think that the nation that invented nuclear power could manage to replace most of the coal plants with nukes. Or are we too ignorant and frightened?

[antoniof123]

You also realize that in France they don't allow anyone to create or make a Nuclear Plant all of them are the same also they are small and even if they lose water and presure they will not melt down (already proven by the French). Plus the French do have a lot of government control on Nuclear Power Plants you willing to go that route. The neo nut cases will fight you every step of the way I am sure of that.

[octavianfdlr]

We are too ignorant and frightened. See, for example, the response by antoniof123, who appears to think that American nuclear power plants are not subject to "a lot of government control," and who appears to fear "The neo nut cases."

[ianlou]

Funny how engineers, inspectors and corporations try to limit their responsibility by citing that "multiple factors caused this disaster"

It's like me trying to limit my responsibility for blowing up my car engine with a statement like "There was no single cause, a lack of oil, water, belt replacement and general maintenance all contributed to the eventual systemic failure of this particular automobile engine"

Recognizing Tripe is becoming a lost art.

[John_Merritt]

For the life of me we talk about technology, risk management principles and the sanctity of the land in which we dwell and operate; and yet we close a blind eye every chance we get. Do you think it is about time we stop using the bottom line as the only indicator of worthiness or reparation of the equipment and facilities in this country? Especially as it pertains to life and livelihood of the citizens within? Do you think we can start doing the right thing, simply because of its worthiness? Do you think that this land and earth will continue to allow us to reap and harvest her elements without some repercussions? Do you think we can continue along this path we have chosen and still be able to be functional as a society, people and nation? Do you think that we are eroding everything within the confines of this earth, the waterways that we are dependent on, and the lives of the people living anywhere within reach of its boundaries? What do you think? I already know my answer.

[sjc_1]

We need to convert at least half of the 600 coal fired power plants to natural gas combined cycle plants over the next 10 years. It will reduce CO2 and get rid of the ash all together.