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[Ampersand]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/12/23/tennessee.sludge.spill/

A wall holding back 80 acres of sludge from a coal plant in central Tennessee broke this week, spilling more than 500 million gallons of waste into the surrounding area.

The sludge, a byproduct of ash from coal combustion, was contained at a retention site at the Tennessee Valley Authority's power plant in Kingston, about 40 miles east of Knoxville, agency officials said.

The retention wall breached early Monday, sending the sludge downhill and damaging 15 homes. All the residents were evacuated, and three homes were deemed uninhabitable, a TVA spokesman told CNN.

The plant sits on a tributary of the Tennessee River called the Clinch River.

"We deeply regret that a retention wall for ash containment at our Kingston Fossil Plant failed, resulting in an ash slide and damage to nearby homes," TVA said in a statement released Tuesday.

For comparison, the Exxon Valdez oil spill dumped a comparatively measly 10.8 million gallons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee_coal_sludge_spill More info from Wikipedia. Also, the amount spilled is actually about one billion gallons of coal-ash sludge.

[Aqizzar]

As you'll notice from the article and the link, this was seven months ago.  Just heard about it now?

Anyway, it's fucked up.  Proof, were it ever needed, that coal isn't even the energy answer for right now, let alone for the future.

[JoshuaFH]

I didn't even know literal lakes of ash existed! Yeah, this is terrible.

I'll have to keep an eye on this.

[Ampersand]

The reason I just now heard about it is because now it's drawing attention; people are getting sick in a big way, scientists are detecting elevated levels of radiation in the air. The air has become toxic.

[Muz]

This may be a stupid question, but how is radiation related to a coal spill?

[Aqizzar]

Coal, being carbon, is radioactive.  Mildly so, but more than most stuff.  Coal dust and sludge is a bit more radioactive, because of the whole particulate thing and some factor of it's processing.  Still much ado about nothing, compared to the plain old chemical toxicity of the mess.

[Ampersand]

I think people start to worry when their children start getting ear infections the size of grapes and start leaking unidentified fluids from their eyes.

[Leafsnail]

Something to do with Carbon 13, isn't it?  Impurities in the coal can also cause problems (there could be radon in there, for instance).  To be honest though I think the breathing problems caused by inhaling dust would probably outweigh the radiation damage.

[Ohaeri]

Anyway, it's fucked up.  Proof, were it ever needed, that coal isn't even the energy answer for right now, let alone for the future.

I wonder why black lung wasn't enough?

But of course I say that when I have no idea of the economic situation in the area is, nor how feasible getting a new energy source or dealing with the waste of the old one would be.

[Virex]

Something to do with Carbon 13, isn't it?  Impurities in the coal can also cause problems (there could be radon in there, for instance).  To be honest though I think the breathing problems caused by inhaling dust would probably outweigh the radiation damage.

C-14 is the radioactive isotope, but I doubt that the C-14 is the main cause, especialy since it should all have degraded by now in fossil fuelss. What's more likely is that the coal slugs contain a lot of heavy metals, and amongst those are also more long-lived radioactive elements. These heavy metals also give it it's toxicity.

Remember that slugs arn't normal coals. It's the waste left over from them and it's rich in metals but lean in carbon. It's a good source for all kinds of trace metals, but some of those trace metals are also toxic.

[kuro_suna]

Lumps of coal from the grounds will usually contain heavy metals like lead, mercury and uranium. For coal as a future energy source the idea is to liquefy it and remove all the contaminates before its burned so its basically like fuel oil except we don't have to go all the way to the middle east to get it.

[Neonivek]

I heard something about Coal Waste being radioactive... It seems a bit farfetched to me but if anyone off hands has any references.

[Glacial Eidolon]

If it ever was the time for action, it is now. These disasters will multiply: we may only see one now, but I wager in a decade more of these types will be piling up. If we just sit here waiting for the government to do something we'll find misery and sickness.

We all need to throw our coins into the pot if this is to stop - at the very least, slow down. The sooner, the better.

[sneakey pete]

Woo, lets throw money at an imaginary problem with no plan of action!

And you americans wonder why there's always so much corruption. All that needs to be done is to ensure that building standards were met, they weren't in this case. more inspections perhaps, thats probably all that is needed.

[Ohaeri]

Woo, lets throw money at an imaginary problem with no plan of action!

And you americans wonder why there's always so much corruption. All that needs to be done is to ensure that building standards were met, they weren't in this case. more inspections perhaps, thats probably all that is needed.

I disagree. I think that finding a way of safely disposing of said waste and then not creating anything else like it is a better course of action than keeping it behind a wall that needs to be constantly maintained for an indefinite period of time.

Of course it would haven been better if building standards had been met until the above could occur.