It\’s Getting Hot In Here

More Breaking News: 

The New York Times ran a story  this morning saying “Major Damage averted” because “the bulk of the sludge spilled onto the West Virginia riverbank.” I get it that you don’t want sludge in a watershed that provides for millions of people, but I thought it was a nice example of environmental injustice and a total lack of analysis of why coal ash is bad.  My guess is people in that community in West Virginia don’t think major damage was averted — and no one has mentioned the repository in West Virginia they are pumping this coal ash into.  If they are still pumping that coal ash, we haven’t averted major damage. 

Breaking News in this edition of “As the Sludge Turns”:

The Maryland Department of the Environment  reported that a ruptured pipeline carrying wet coal ash into West Virginia sprung a leak and released 4,000 gallons of the toxic soup into the North Branch of the Potomac River, in Allegheny County, PA.

It is “only” 4,000 gallons (compared to over a billion in TN), but it would be impacting people in Washington DC, which as you know, is a place where very important people live.  Luckily the Obama Administration just announced plans to propose federal regulations for coal waste–but maybe this will spring them to action a little faster. 

NRDC is working to track the spill on their blog. 

Now we just need to make sure the media doesn’t forget to worry about the community in West Virginia that they were pumping that toxic coal ash slurry into when they had their spill.