Comments on: EPA Releases Locations of 44 “High Risk” Coal Ash Sites

By: Frank Talk

Frank Talk — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:46:54 +0000

Please check your facts – the EPA’s list of 44 coal slurry ponds are not those “particularly vulnerable to failure” as you write, but those which, if they failed, have the highest potential to cause damage to surrounding communities. It is an important distinction.

By: Danawv

Danawv — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:07:31 +0000

Yes, there was also a slurry pond disaster in Martin County, KY in October of 2000, the worst environmental disaster to strike the southeastern United States before the TN ash spill, 20 times larger than the oil spill from the Exxon Valdez. By several overlapping miracles, no one was killed.

By: Peebles

Peebles — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:10:44 +0000

And it was my understanding that the slurry pond in Buffalo Creek was in Logan County, WV.

By: Peebles

Peebles — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:07:46 +0000

Right, right, and right. My apologies for failing to make that distinction. Most importantly, I’m glad you mentioned that CCS wouldn’t affect any of this.

By: Danawv

Danawv — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:03:38 +0000

Hey, this is a great story, but to point out — Coal SLURRY or SLUDGE is a toxic waste created when coal is cleaned BEFORE it is burned — it was coal slurry ponds that broke at Buffalo Creek, in Martin County KY and threaten at Marsh Fork Elementary.

Coal ASH, FLY ASH and COAL COMBUSTION WASTE is the toxic waste that’s leftover AFTER you burn coal. That’s what destroyed all those homes in Tennessee last Christmas.

Some communities that have power plants in proximity to mining have problems with both coal slurry and coal ash — that’s a lot of toxins that are almost always localized in poor and/or communitities of color.

It’s an important distinction because coal is dirty from beginning (coal slurry) to the end (coal ash) and for the record, none of these problems are fixed by Carbon Capture and Sequestration!