It’s Getting Hot In Here

By Lauren McGrath

On Dec 22^nd, TVA’s coal ash spill – believed to be the largest industrial spill in our nation’s history – released over a billion gallons of coal sludge into the surrounding communities in Eastern TN. Today, around 10am Central Time, TVA reported a second spill—albeit more contained—at their Window’s Creek coal burning plant in Northeastern Alabama.

The announcement of the second spill arrives one day after the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee held an oversight hearing on TVA and the coal ash spill. In yesterday’s hearing committee chair, Senator Boxer, opened:

“Let me describe what happened at 1 AM on Monday, December 22, 2008 near the Kingston TVA coal-fired power plant. An earthen wall failed on a 40-acre surface impoundment holding coal ash. More than one billion gallons of waste rushed down the valley like a wave, covering more than 300 acres. The volume of ash and water was nearly 100 times greater than the amount of oil spilled in the Exxon Valdez disaster….At the spill site, the US EPA has found river water with arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, chromium and lead above drinking water standards.”

The chair followed her opening remarks, noting that she would press for more stringent compliance, and that it was critically important that protective standards for coal-ash waste be created.

Senator Alexander of Tennessee – where the major coal spill occurred – said that while he’d like to see the state and TVA do more, he would like to see TVA turn this tragedy into a technological success story by finding innovate ways to use or sell coal ash waste in the future. Continue reading ‘Three Weeks in the Life of TVA: Two Coal Ash Spills, One Senate Hearing.’

Hey all, below is a video montage I put together focused on youth at the recent UN Climate Negotiations in Poznan, Poland.

We have a huge amount of work to do before Copenhagen this December, but the youth in Poland gave us an amazing start. Enjoy!

On Saturday, January 10, seventeen Earth First! activists were arrested for entering the Barley Barber Swamp to demand the protection of Florida old growth ecosystems. The Barley Barber Swamp is one of the few remaining old growth cypress swamps in the Southeast. Several of the bald cypress trees in Barley Barber are over a thousand years old. They are the oldest in Florida and the entire Southeast region.

(click here to see a short video clip of Barley Barber and the 1100 year old bald cypress:  )

Barley Barber Swamp is being killed by the massive 3750 megaWatt MartinCounty power plant that hovers over it and the seventeen mile cooling pond that surrounds it.

Following a five day standoff, six activists entered the swamp through a public waterway and chained themselves to trees. Eleven other activists
were swept up by the police in a frivolous attempt to quell the
protest. Currently, Everglades Earth First! is confronted with the immediate need to raise
$18,000 to bail these courageous activists out of Martin County jail.

Direct action is a community effort that goes well beyond the risk of
arrest. It requires broad support from those who wish to see grassroots
efforts succeed. We hope to go to the jail on Monday with the funds to bail
all seventeen activists out. We know times are tough but if everyone
pitches in we can ensure that these folks don’t sit in jail for the next
thirty days. Can you contribute to this effort? Just go to our website at
www.evergladesearthfirst.org/ and click on the “Donate” paypal link
on the left hand side of the page or make out a check to Everglades Earth
First and send it to 822 N C Street, Lake Worth, FL 33460

(Click here to a video on the standoff on the mainstream news Continue reading ’17 Arrested protesting Florida Power and Light. Support needed’

Crossposted from http://indiaclimatesolutions.com/good-day-be-revolution

The Climate Solutions Road Tour – a journey across India in solar electric cars – is just driving into Hyderabad, and I’m glad that I’m sitting in “Revolution,” our beautiful white Reva covered in images of causes, impacts, and solutions to climate change — messges of how to take the world with us on the road to 350. Anyway, Abishek and I just got the message from our Solar PunchBuggy (the van covered in solar panels that is the primary transport for Solar Punch – our solar powered band) that there is a diesel strike in all of Hyderabad.

This explains why there have been so few trucks on the road today – we’ve seen more parked on the side than driving; explains why there’s really hardly any traffic at all. We were told this morning it’s a truck strice against the price of diesel and petrol, but really it’s a citywide diesel strike! All of the gas stations are closed in the city, people protesting the rising cost of diesel. We agree! It is too high! It’s too high to continue building our infrastructure, our automobiles, and our economies on petroleum products. It’s an opportunity that this moment in history has to seize! There can be a revolution in automaking if key decision makers set standards for the reinvented auto industry that allow us to have zero carbon sustainable mobility.

Continue reading ‘While Some Strike For Diesel, We Drive To Change’

This . . . is  . . . amazing.

Wind turbine destroyed after ‘octopus UFO’ seen in sky
Telegraph.co.uk

Dozens of residents claimed to have seen bright flashing spheres is the skies near Louth, Lincolnshire, where a 290ft turbine was mangled in a mystery collision.

One woman said she saw an object fly towards the wind farm, while others described the lights as being linked by “tentacles”, leading locals to dub it the octopus UFO.

I’m just waiting for the American Enterprise Institute to leap to the defense of octopus UFO’s who are clearly endangered by wind turbine construction. Who knows, maybe a Yeti is actually to blame for the TVA coal spill? If only we can harness these octopus UFOs to go after oil rigs like the one in the photo . . .

It’s official, TVA is trying to kill us.

The Ocoee River is famous for its white water and hosted parts of the 1996 Olympics. This spill wasn’t coal sludge related — it’s actually sediment built up at the bottom of a regular river dam over the years that was accidentally released during dam repair, causing black muck to be released and a fish kill.

It should be noted that the sediment seems to contain toxins related to the years of nearby copper mining and acid mine drainage river.  To be fair (which TVA doesn’t deserve), this sort of environmental problem happens fairly often (and is still horrible every time) and wouldn’t be national news if it wasn’t the latest development in TVA’s apparent attempt to assassinate the entire southeast.  Read the article after the jump.

Continue reading ‘TVA Strikes AGAIN–Three Disasters in Three Weeks.’

Tennessee Valley Authority
400 W. Summit Hill Dr.
Knoxville, TN 37902-1499
865-632-2101
tvainfo@tva.com

Dear TVA, Are you trying to kill us all? You are jerks. Come on!

Sincerely,

Dana

PS I think it’s safe to guess this spill is many times what you are admitting. You may be receiving more letters on this issue.

Read more about it in the Knoxville, TN paper:

STEVENSON, Ala. – The Tennessee Valley Authority says a waste pond at its Widows Creek power plant in northeast Alabama has ruptured but the spill is now contained.

TVA spokesman John Moulton said the leak in the pond was discovered at about 6 a.m. at the plant near Stevenson, Ala. He said most of the material from the leak flowed into a settling pond at the plant site but some spilled into Widows Creek.

The federal utility says the leak of what it described as gypsum has stopped and it is repairing the pond. It doesn’t have an estimate on much material spilled and the cause of the failure is under investigation.

The incident comes less than three weeks after a TVA fly-ash pond ruptured in Kingston, Tenn., spilling more than 1 billion gallons of toxic sludge. The Dec. 22 retention pond failure in Kingston damaged homes, covered a community with a layer of muck and fouled the Emory River.

What better way to celebrate the next commercial holiday than spotlighting the role of the banking behemoth Bank of America in the systematic destruction of ecosystems and oppression of working families?

Although BofA recently hatched an “ill timed PR ploy” swearing off MTR, they continue to fund coal extraction, as well as widespread oppression, from Black Mesa at Four Corners to the coal fields in Eastern Tennessee, to the urban communities in Mattapan… unless…

This Valentine’s Day, we do something about it.

Hot of the desk of Rising Tide Boston, in solidarity with City Life/Vide Urbana

*NATIONAL CALL TO ACTION*

BREAK UP WITH BANK OF AMERICA ON VALENTINES DAY
FEB 14th, 2009: MASS DAY OF ACCOUNT CLOSURES
STOP ALL EVICTIONS AND FORECLOSURES!
STOP FINANCING COAL AND CLIMATE CHANGE!

Contact: valentinesday@risingtideboston.org
Continue reading ‘Tell Bank of America: “It’s Over”’

On December 31st I headed down to Kingston, TN ten days after the largest coal ash disaster in the history of the U.S. A catastrophic failure in the retention pond caused a 20 foot river swell and poured out 1.3 billion gallons of coal fly ash over 300 acres of waterways, land and people’s homes. I headed down to survey the site and speak with the local residents, all who were cordial and taking the disaster in stride. There are a lot of mixed feelings down there, so we tried to capture that in this video’s point of view and keep it as objective as possible. WATCH THE VIDEO HERE.

From the desk of the Ohio Student Environmental Coalition, here is a compilation of recent stuff on the huge TVA coal ash spill in Eastern Tennessee:
http://energyjustice.net/Ohio/TVA-Special-1-8-09.pdf

Initial coverage, on the ground voices, resources, and action opportunities.

There is also a wealth of info at the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and some really solid journalism and photos at AlterNet.