Comments on: Kingston Coal Ash Sludge Spill Over a Billion Gallons: Time to Take a Hard Look at the Coal Industry

By: Climate Progress » Blog Archive » Tennessee not-so-clean coal sludge spill estimate grows to 1 billion gallons

Sat, 04 Apr 2009 00:05:05 +0000

[...] to fill your pool with “concentrated levels of mercury and arsenic.” And that is, as Richard Graves puts it, “more than 100 times larger than the Exxon Valdez disaster and, in fact, more than every [...]

By: Tennessee coal ash disaster « SANC news

Tennessee coal ash disaster « SANC news — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:52:43 +0000

[...] amount spilled is unprecedented in size and scale, being more than 100 times larger than the Exxon Valdez disaster, and should [...]

By: Dynegy Cancels Investment in Six Coal Burning Power Plants « It’s Getting Hot In Here

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 19:14:12 +0000

[...] against coal is growing all around the country, as residents of Kingston, Tennessee recover from a one billion gallon spill of toxic coal ash produced by a coal plant last week. That spill promises to leave streams, fish, front yards and [...]

By: Weekly Web Roundup | EcoSilly

Weekly Web Roundup | EcoSilly — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 18:00:52 +0000

[...] Romm, DeSmogBlog, Huffington Post and It’s Getting Hot In Here cover the toxic coal ash spill in Tennessee. Erin Brockovich plans to visit the site; she also [...]

By: shams

shams — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 03:58:01 +0000

Very amazing site! I wish I could do something as nice as you did

By: Richard Graves

Richard Graves — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 03:02:14 +0000

Change Dominion -

I have been tracking the percentages of our infrastructure and natural resources that coal usage takes up and it is just staggering. I am working on some pieces on the topic. Thanks for following this story.

One interesting note about coal and the railroad industry is that Coal is one of the least profitable and cheapest freight cargoes. So while coal makes up around 44% of rail cargo, it only is around 23% of the income for railroads. They may be in cahoots for now, but if we were able to divert a percentage of the long-haul trucking freight to rail – we would save a lot of diesel too. So, reducing coal usage wouldn’t just have a direct impact but a slew of secondary impacts – including a reduction in diesel consumption (which is foreign oil) and less wear and tear on roads and bridges as well as less congestion on highways. This would even make rail more profitable, helping revitalize our most efficient land transportation system.

Sounds like a bargain to me.

By: ChangeDominion.com

ChangeDominion.com — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 02:08:03 +0000

Thanks to Richard Graves for this great update, and for explaining the many other ways that coal is a killer industry. I’m especially struck that coal uses HALF of our freight rail capacity. Of course, this means that the railroads are probably in kahoots with the coal companies, since they won’t want to lose this business. But in the coming age of clean energy, we will need that rail capacity for moving other stuff besides coal. Meanwhile, how about mass sit-ins on the rails?

By: anarchyinc

anarchyinc — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 15:54:39 +0000

I used to live in TN and the rest of family still does, I went over to see the spill during X-mas and was amazed at what I saw. Down by the Swan Pond area next to the plant, where a lot of people use to go to fish, there WAS a very nice view of the riverbank where you would see ducks and geese and what not. What is there now is the road and columns of ash deposits 9 feet high coming from the sludge pit that used to be the waterline. There is no more river there that I can tell and I find it very hard to believe that you can even find any fish to eat. There simply isn’t any water left even if it wasn’t poisoned, unless you sank into the sludge you wouldn’t even get your ankles wet.

By: Coal is a long way from clean « Path To Sustainable

Coal is a long way from clean « Path To Sustainable — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 06:11:49 +0000

[...] to fill your pool with “;concentrated levels of mercury and arsenic.”; And that is, as Richard Graves puts it, “more than 100 times larger than the Exxon Valdez disaster and, in fact, more than every [...]

By: deirdre

deirdre — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 00:52:50 +0000

I agree w/ sparki. Let’s not forget that coal mining can’t happen without funding, and the main banks that make the funding (and therefore mountaintop removal & sludge dam breaks) possible, are BANK OF AMERICA and CITIBANK.

Take action against your local branches to pressure them to pull their funding from the coal industry immediately. Stay tuned for info about a mass Bank of America account closings day on February 14th, when Rising Tide Boston is urging the nation to “Break Up with Bank of America” on the grounds that they have broken our trust to an un-repairable level by funding the coal industry (the death of the planet) and unjustly evicting working families from their homes due to dirty lending practices.

My thoughts are going out to the folks directly effected by this massive disaster in TN.