December 26, 2008

2.6 Million Cubic Yards of Toxic Coal Ash Slurry Released in Tennessee Dike Burst.
posted by homunculus 15 years ago
  • 2.6 million cubic yards is the equivalent of 525.2 million gallons, 48 times more than the Exxon Valdez spill by volume. Fuck. It's too bad the Clean Coal Carolers are gone. They could've added "I'm Dreaming of an Ash Christmas" to their repetoire.
  • Where are the reporters on this? It's astounding that companies aren't held responsible for their crap. We certainly do live in the best of all possible capitalistic worlds. /sarcasm Good post, hom-boy. Don't forget to put it on the Blue.
  • If you put this on the blue, don't forget the Martin County spill. Another one that didn't get much national attention.
  • Those Clean Coal Carolers would be *ashen faced* by now, blanched with shame. Or else, maybe their little jiggle eyes popped off in the flood...Not that there's anything funny about that. It was such a beautiful state.
  • I can't post on the Blue again until tonight, so if anyone else wants to post it now, be my guest.
  • Where are the reporters on this? Actually, they just did a pretty good piece on this on CNN, so maybe the media is waking up to it.
  • I can't post on the Blue again until tonight, so if anyone else wants to post it now, be my guest. I can't do it without frothing at the mouth, but if you (or anyone else) would like to do it later and would some more background links, I can probably lay hands on a few useful ones. Just checked, and our profiles don't show location. I'm in Kentucky and have somehow spent most of my life here.
  • Total cost, people. Amazing how if you figure the cost per KW of solar power vs the total cost (including cleanup and hidden health hazards x # of generations) solar looks so much better. But wait! Corporations are NOT responsible for their little messes. *slaps hand, takes nickel*
  • The really interesting thing here, that seems to be missed by all the news reports I've read, is that the most basic thing the TVA does is constructing levees, dams, and earthworks. If they got this this wrong, what else do you suppose they've been screwing up? Current estimate of inundated area is 400 acres. Which is equivalent to a square about 1.25 kilometers on a side.
  • Well, KevvinSevvin, I'm from America, where according to the snotty tone of the article in the Democracy Now site we're "so geographically challenged in this country, [we] may not even quite even understand where Tennessee is." So, for the sake of us dumb bumblefuck rubes, can you give us that spill area again in miles sos we dumb Americans can understand? (Seriously, I understand the issues here, but the shitty smear thrown in by Amy Goodman was ENTIRELY unprofessional and unnecessary. I mean, dude, WTF.)
  • Sorry about that. I'm from here too. Just seems like everyone else is antipodean or canuck or something. Amy Goodman. Man. If it suddenly became possible to reach into a radio and actually strangle the person on the other end, I'd do Amy first. A square mile is 640 acres. So the area under ashes is roughly 5/8 square mile. Or a rectangle a little less than a mile on one side and a little more than a half mile on the other. Or something that's going to take you a bit more than an hour to walk around at a fast clip on flat clear ground. Or a metric buttload. Which is about 1.26 imperial buttloads.
  • Of course, the company will claim the spill is limited to <.5 imperial buttload, with absolutely no contamination by run-off or seepage into the aquifer or concomitant air pollution once the slurry ash dries this spring. Really folks, it's no problem. It will take you a minor detour of less then ten minutes to drive around. Nothing to see here, move along.
  • Let's get it straight folks, it's CORPORATIONS we need to protect, not kids.