Sludge flood

Did you see the news about the sludge flood from the coal mine in Tennessee?

Clean coal--a fictional concept widely disseminated by those who make money off of coal mining. (And I'm from West Virginia)

Updates:

Here is an NPR story from January 2.

A New York Times story from January 6 about the general lack of regulation for coal ash dumps.

An AP story dated January 7, about the cost of the cleanup...and who will pay for it (you got it - ratepayers, including some whose land has been buried by the sludge!).

Thanks for the links, oregonobsessionz.

I've got three undeveloped thoughts about this. One: the TVA was originally built by flooding out what had been private farm land. Some irony there. Two: Similarity between this and Buffalo Creek. Three: Similarity between this and Aberfan.

I hope everyone here will feel free to elaborate from what I'm touching on, shoot down my ideas, etc.

If you've not seen the George Clooney movie Oh, Brother Where Art Thou check it out if for nothing else than the flood scene when the TVA wiped out the farm land. A cow may come floating by.

Here in Minnesota, three similar sites with the potential for such a catastrophe have been mentioned in the news. They are not in steep valleys, but share the characteristic of being sludge ponds held back by manmade walls of dubious reliability. Wonder how many more of these sites exist around the country?

Act of God, huh? Who died and made the coal companies god? Sorry to sound so bitter, but I know people who had family and friends in Buffalo Creek and it infuriates me that things like this are still allowed to happen.

I hope that Erin Brokovich will be able to use her well-known name to push for some long overdue regulation on these disasters waiting to happen.

Aberfan:

October 21, 1966. Aberfan, Wales.

An 800-foot-high heap of waste coal slag "slipped" engulfing a school, a row of terraced cottages and a farm.

116 children died along with 28 adults.

There's comprehensive coverage of this horrifying event in The Greatest Disasters of the 20th Century.

Failures of tailings dams are not at all uncommon. The Wise Uranium Project has compiled a partial list of tailings dam failures. A few include links to more detailed information. Link to the chronology should be here.

ETA the Charleston Gazette has posted a 1997 (25th anniversary) retrospective on Buffalo Creek here. A Citizen's Commission report, including photos taken during the investigation, is available here.

Edited in an attempt to fix the link to that chronology in the first paragraph; it's working fine for me.

>9 oregonobsessionz:

Can't get the Wise Uranium Project link to work. Drat.

I have three books about Buffalo Creek in my library: Everything in Its Path by Kai T. Erikson (the lawyer for the victims). Also Buffalo Creek: Valley of Death and The Flood and the Blood, both by Dennis Deitz.

I think the best is The Flood and the Blood because it really communicates the suffering of the victims. I don't know if all three of these are widely available. I'm pretty sure that I bought the Deitz books at the Tamarack Gift Shop on the WV Turnpike.

>11 debherter:

I believe Gerald Stern (who wrote The Buffalo Creek Disaster) was the lawyer for the victims; Erikson was a sociologist.

I'll have to check out the Deitz books, as it is a fascinating story.

You're right. And those two aren't the same thing at all.

FWIW, I found this on the Yahoo Finance website today. It's a list of ash ponds at power plants, compiled for the use of those who may want to be aware of these potential liabilities before they invest in a utility: http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/090109/coal_ash_power_plants.html?.v=1

Sorry about the late post, but I'm still catching up on older stuff in this group.

I note a number of posts above comment on "coal companies". The power plant in question belongs to the Tennessee Valley Authority, which is an agency of the United States government - not a corporation. I believe the correct expression is "We're from the Government, we're here to help you."

Ah yes, setnahkt. A very wise saying. LOL

furdog wrote (1): "Clean coal--a fictional concept widely disseminated by those who make money off of coal mining. (And I'm from West Virginia)"

Then you should know!