Total mess to say the least and probably very toxic.

Okay, I’ll admit it, but I have no idea what this is about.
Would someone be so kind as to enlighten me?

COAL ASH SLIDE INUNDATES TENNESSEE COMMUNITY

An Eastern Tennessee community is facing an environmental horror this Christmas holiday after a massive coal-sludge pond collapsed Monday at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston power plant in Roane County. The collapse released at least 1.7 million cubic yards of fly ash, the heavy-metal and radiation-laden waste left after burning coal.

The toxic sludge has covered some 400 acres of land four to six feet deep and damaged at least a dozen homes, including one that was pushed off its foundation. The fly ash has also blocked the Emory River, a tributary of the Tennessee, which provides drinking water for millions of people living downstream. There are already reports of fish kills related to the spill, which could take months or even years to clean up.

TVA President and CEO Tom Kilgore — who likened the appearance of the ruined land to a “moonscape” — says he and his company “deeply regret” what happened.

“Protecting the public, our employees, and the environment is TVA’s primary concern as we supply electric power for the people of Tennessee Valley region,” he says.

continues…

fugly

Howdy, firedogs! Long time no see!

Jeeeeze, it took me FOREVER to get back here and figure out how to login.

Anyway, a blast from the past from Cozumel! ; )

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Keep Rockin’ it Jane! ; )

Coz, H/H back at you!

TVA President and CEO Tom Kilgore — who likened the appearance of the ruined land to a “moonscape” — says he and his company “deeply regret” what happened.

“Protecting the public, our employees, and the environment is TVA’s primary concern as we supply electric power for the people of Tennessee Valley region,” he says.

Safety is our first concern, after profits, of course. – Sir Topham Hat

Profit first
dog second
people next
environment last
Toxins in the ground in the air and in the sea and industry wants to make a deal? Tell we are sorry to the generations that will suffer from the toxins. Too much…too unbelievable after 40 years of environmentalism.
There are no organic farming AG schools?

Thanks, newtowner. And back at ya! ; )

Dubya and the Republicans love this environmental devastation. Free Markets will wreck the planet for profit and leave the mess for taxpayers to clean up. Of course, such devastation can never be repaired. Dubya is helping mining companies continue mountain top removal. This looks like mountain top removal.

The MSM, NPR to be precise, says that we need cheap coal so this kind of environmental devastation is understandable.

Thanks Newtonusr, I tried Google and got a 2003 article about a bridge collapse there.

But, but NPR is the “liberal” station! [/sarcasm]

Reminds me of the aftermath of Mt. St. Helen’s.

“Protecting the public, our employees, and the environment is TVA’s primary concern as we supply electric power for the people of Tennessee Valley region,” he says.

If this were true, then systems would have been maintained so as to prevent such a disaster. Its a lie, of course.

NPR is a sick joke. Although there is a bit of liberal programming, the predominant news is pure Rove/Cheney-approved, right-wing propaganda.

Along with this assessment…

which provides drinking water for millions of people living downstream. There are already reports of fish kills related to the spill, which could take months or even years to clean up.

Tennesseans are f*cked…! Ho ho ho…!

The benefits of clean coal.
Plain to see.

Hey Coz, are you from or do ya frequent Cozumel, on the Yucatan Peninsula?

I got a couple Canadian internet pals who vacation there annually with family and friends. For a decade or more now. They RAGE about it!!!! *G*

And in regards to the thread at hand, fugly is a good call up there.

Ugly harvest of the product, and fugly handling of the waste.

Good post and thanks to resident CanuckIstan FDL’r Ian . . . you guys up there KNOW coal harvesting, I bet . . . and it’s evils. As much as tar sand oil harvesting . . . (don’t get me started).

What’s a few lives and the environment in pursuit of profits?

Geez, like everything else during W, I never thought I’d live to see the day when the environment would return to the ilk of rivers on fire.

I have clearly lived too long.

Which cities in TN are going to be affected? I’m about to see some TN relatives over the holidays.

Cozumel! Long time no!

Merry Christmas, everyone.

This spill is the perfect end to the BushCo reign of environmental terror.

My heart goes out to everyone downstream.

The amazing part is, after watching the video, the bulk of the fly ash is still on site…! The wall collapse may have drained the water from it, but, the vast majority of the toxic crap is still on site…!

If another country had inflicted this on American, we would consider it chemical warfare. It’s incredible to think of the generations who are going to be poisoned by this. Reading Ricki Ott’s book will tell you how much Mr Kilgore’s statement actually means: nothing at all.

Not if we had supplied the knowledge, goods and technology. We sure would not consider a foreign country to be culpable for misdeeds. That would hamper profit margins.

I mean, what do you think all them auto plants in the deep south that are foreign owned are leeching into the soils of their environs? And do yo think ANYONE is calling THEM on that?

They get a free ride as much as our own multi-nationalist corps get a free ride to waste environments at home and abroad. *G*

Thanks for that. Hadn’t thought about all the environmental waivers that the transplants had gotten.

Guess we know now where Bush hangs his Christmas stocking. Santa came through with a whoppin’ delivery of coal (ash).

An environmental Chernobyl.

This post is now open for Digging…

be glad you don’t have to dig yourself out of that muck!

could this be just the latest Heckuva Job Brownie…the Bush administration, on its way out the door, demonstrating massive incompetence in its management of that New Deal icon, the TVA…perhaps to sink it forever?

Par for the course, neuro! Shrub has dismantled every remaining vestige of FDR’s New Deal, this is icing on the cake…!

Ma’am, we’ve disagreed about things in the past, but I’ll shout a HEARTY yes ma’am on my posit and your reply.

I’ll honor your reply with the thought that Bush has been destroying environ protections thru out his admin, and the bastard’s been at it hard in the past two weeks (sorry I don’t have links, it’s common info).

I’m hopin for the best and fearing the worst as we transition to a new admin.

May I take this occasion to offer my humble appreciation for FDL, it’s mainpage posters one and all, OxDown Pups and all of those who comment in here.

I have times I disagree with some, I have times I am schooled about things, and in general, I always appreciate reading and commenting in here.

Merry Christmas, FDL, posters and Pups one and all.

Thanks for what you do . . . all y’all have sharpened MY keyboad comments a lot over the past couple of years.

And to all in regards to the post about Jerry Brown and Prop 8 I need to offer a humble apology.

I made a pretty harsh comment about Mr. Brown, and what I thought was his intent with regards to LGBT issues. I still don’t trust him, though.

My apology centers on the fact that after I reviewed his time as Governor, it was NOT near as bad as I recalled it.

I can only offer, before doing some reading on the subject, that I went off on my suggestion that he was a failure due to my recalls of living under Reagan, Dukemejian and Wilson before and after Jerry Brown.

I forgot what it was like under Moonbeam . . . it wasn’t that bad, and there were HUGE issues against him, all along.

And if that trio of ReThug governor’s don’t just jade and mess up yer head, then ya ain’t paying attention to history or reality.

And that’s my apology and I am GREATLY enthused that Moonbeam might be able to empower the LGBT community in his recent brave actions.

That was my bad. And I’m now hopin for some serious changes in CA, and across the nation.

Merry Christmas, ya Pups, one and all . . . *G*

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, Larue.

Merry Christmas, Larue

Are we having Christmas Late Late Nite tonite?

For those of us in the Midwest (CST), the advent of LLN = midnite = Christmas

Don’t think we’d disagree at all about what W did. I just appreciate having someone point out to me one of those bads that I hadn’t already thought of myself. After all, one of the purposes of a community is to develop a collective wisdom.

At which point I heartily agree with your comments about FDL. When I was working, my research never really came together until I had to write it up as a report. I have lost that outlet for intellectual discipline. So commenting here, and being challenged on those comments, is a real gift.

Will this be in the next Clean Coal” ad campaign?

hey larue :)

eureka has late late nite duties tonight and it will be up at its regular time

merry christmas, suzanne

how’s your weather?

Hey, LaRue
Thanks and back atcha.
I missed the argy-bargy over Moonbeam, but I know a classy (with a C) apology when I read one. My hat’s off to ya, those aren’t easy.

XXOO
FunnyDiva

rain and one big hailstorm but mainly rain – 34 outside with rain forecast for the next week

I’m with the diva.

See all y’all upstairs with ES at llnight!

FunnyD

late late upstairs

Thanks Pups one and all . . . yer a benevolent bunch for indulging all my rantings. *G*

And Suz Is God, in case some of ya don’t know it . . *G* It was on that wall in London next to the Clapton graffitti . . .*G*

Here’s a XMAS Revolutionary bit of protest from long ago I can NEVER get enough of:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…..re=related

May Our Chimes Of Freedom Flashing Sound Forever . . . that song just tears me up and has done so since what, ‘67? Whew.

Back. To the future! *G*

This is a national tradegy and a great disgrace. My family is from Tennessee,he family settled there before the Revolutionary War, and to see such a lovely area despoiled..
Clean coal indeed. It’s too bad the wake call about that falsehood has to come with such destruction.

Here’s footage from the October 2000 Martin County coal spill in Kentucky
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…..re=related

Geez, I’m just a lifer jr. college and undergrad (at age 55) . . . I’m NO where at the masters or Ph.D level of stuff . . . and yet I love your descrip of what it means to hone your thoughts and craft of things worldly and try and bring them to to toobs . . .

What a perfect description . . . it greatly appeals to my radio/tv/journalism background and the influence my pops had on me . . .

The narrative of life, the telling of story to enable truth.

I’m suddenly misting up about Studs Terkel . . . and U. Utah Phillips.

Dang.

I’m glad I’m not the only one. I spent a few years out of the US and when I came back there were a number of things that I just couldn’t get my head around. Reality TV and LOL cats, all the pay phones gone, and NPR as a Bush Administration Tool Shed.

I mentioned this to some people and was assured that, no, NPR was pretty liberal.

But it’s not.

I’m what used to be considered moderately conservative, which puts me to the left of most of the US today. The thing that really got me was when someone (on Talk Of The Nation, I think it was) said that Barry Goldwater was a liberal and everyone agreed.

I guess that would make Mussolini a centrist by NPR’s standards.

–MarkusQ

P.S. The other thing that freaked me out was when I realized that the host of Marketplace sounded the same it was really someone new (Kai Ryssdal), and before getting into radio he was a Pentagon staff officer.

It isn’t Bush, it’s capitalism and the disconnect of the individual from the community. My profit at the expense of our community. There will be more episodes. Those people who feel Tennessee somehow deserves this because of its conservatism had better hope toxic waste doesn’t come to a neighborhood near them. We are in this together except most of us don’t see it that way. Problems, we’ve got. Time to start speculating about solutions.

We are reaping the fruits of Reagan’s decision to cut spending to the bone on infrastructure…obviously, the chickens are coming home to roost on a lot of things the righties have managed to screw up with their “supply side” bullcr*p.

That said, I find myself agreeing with ol’ Markus here, in that I used to think myself pretty moderate and now, find that being for a Constitutional government/society which actually adjudicates fairly…makes me a tinfoil hat wearing screaming far-leftie (communist)!

It still baffles me sometimes.

The Three Mile Island of Coal.

“Clean Coal”

No such thing!!!

Rylands v. Fletcher; is that the law down there?