Those fish are just resting.

Dugg right here

Yes, just doing the back stroke.

Are the victims of this spill being provided with bottled drinking water by TVA? Is TVA doing anything but reading out of the CEO Handbook from the Exxon Valdez spill?

Can’t they put some kind of foam over the ash before it dries up and blows everywhere? What are the prevailing winds? Aren’t there some rich people’s communities at risk?

I suppose it’s important to know (considering current management) if they bottled it just down stream.

Isn’t it a crime to knowingly poison people? (or not informing them of poison)

I think the EPA’s current plan to avoid problems with dust is for residents to hold their breath.

Seems standard for a 3-year-old solution.

The important thing is how much of the metal is tightly bound into the ash or waste material and how much can leak out in the water. That’s different than knowing how much is in the ash or waste.

The fish die because the organic portion of the coal ash oxidizes and suffocates the fish due to lack of oxygen.

Is there still only one EPA official onsite? Or has that official gone back to the office?

OT
Anyone know if these potential appointments would be good, bad, or indifferent?
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/…..r-general/

Big specials on WVA fish at the grocery this weekend?

Well re Elena Kagan, Harvard Law is now where Cass Sunstein now works. And I don’t know that she has ever litigated that much, which you would sort of want from a Solicitor General. I don’t know anything beyond what is in Sullivan’s wiki. Again I think Seth Waxman who actually has litigated before the Supremes would be a good choice if he was interested.

I should point out that Waxman was Solicitor General under Clinton and did the oral argument on Boumediene. Personally I would have liked to have seen him as AG.

Thanks. Seems like mediocre among the mediocre/bad choices Obama has made.

Thank you for aiming your laser eye on this, Kirk.

This event is one of the reasons I just cannot find suitable words to comment about the events of these days.

This will do: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…..53828.html

Another is the mountain-topping in WV. Does anyone know if Sen. Byrd has ever said a word about THAT other catastrophic, HUMAN-CAUSED situation? I hear he reveres his home state. huh! whatever.

Then the scraping of Wyoming for nice pristine oil-sands for extraction. Drive through on the interstate and you’d never know, distracted by reading at the conveniently located roadside stops about all their love of wildlife yadda yadda.

The killing of countless cetaceans by sonar blasts for the sake of “necessary” tests. Against what? I’d rather succumb than endure the loss of all our whales and dolphins.

The aerial pot-shots killing wolves at random in AK and elsewhere, simply because one can. nice. ii hope sarah bagged her fill for the season.

Then the scouring of our little minds of all memory of who and what perpetrated and enabled these horrendous deeds.

I could go on, but I won’t just now.

Forgive me for taking time to sulk. It seems appropiate, and hopefully short of total debilitating depression.

I await the regime change. I hope Obama will care. BushCo surely doesn’t.

thanks kirk. some more from effect measure (public health blog) which had a nice background post: Will Big Coal get its ash kicked?

Days after this catastrophic spill (which miraculously didn’t kill anyone outright), both TVA and EPA said about the sludge, “Don’t worry, be happy.” Now they are telling residents to avoid contact with it and keep their pets and children away from it altogether. Information about levels of toxic materials is very slow to come out, even though the tests can be done in a working day. Thus the EPA and TVA have had the information for a good week, but very little data on what was in the sludge or the levels at various places where it has been sampled has been released. Sounds like they are trying to avoid owning up to how bad it really is. Maybe not, but they are inviting this kind of speculation by their secrecy.

The Army Corps of Engineers is preparing to dredge the section of the Emory River clogged by the spill. They are hiring a private contractor, naturally. Economic stimulus to local business? TVA says it will pay, but since we don’t know the costs yet, we don’t know if they will be able to. They are already facing several lawsuits. Did I hear someone say “bail out”? Apt term for this, although instead of river muck we’ll be bailing money for TVA’s malfeasance. I could be wrong. Anyone want to bet on this?

The Great Irony, of course, is that this happened because the industry has successfully resisted regulation on the basis of cost, and now this company is in for huge clean-up costs and the industry likely will be subject to billions in new rules, rules that were set to go when the Clinton EPA handed off to the Bush administration but then — imagine — were put on the shelf.

I didn’t know that Waxman held that position. I would love to see him get a high profile position holding folks accountable.

All of those corrupt mother fuckers better live in gated communities.

If our government doesn’t have the capacity to clean up this mess, we are in huge trouble.

If you saw video of same, you would realize it’s sodden, and not about to blow anywhere. Think of a thick blanket of toxic goo.

http://legalectric.org/

But, no one could have imagined…

we already are, for countless other reasons. and NO, I’m not a subscriber to armegeddon nonsense.

We’ve got enough reality to tackle without dithering about the forces from anywhere else.

Let’s get our OWN house in order.

but then, i’m preaching to the choir.

Thank you puppies for all you do….

Time to resurrect CHS’s post re: how many West Virginia families survive on what they catch and kill.

Apologies for link at 22. You’ll need to scroll down.

I agree with every word! Sadly, when I was young and not so thoughtful, I was very caught up in the Sonar world. More into listening to whales than blasting (”ensonifying”) them. I feel quite criminal now. Of course they have studies demonstrating that these acoustic projections are harmless. I’ll look for it.

Thank you, Adie.

Thanks back Loo Hoo.

But why do we stop there. Here comes another thump of gunk on our doorstep.

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45273

apologies. I do know WVA and TN are not the same state.

from Crooks and Liars http://crooksandliars.com/node/24958

Many towns are testing new methods to make their ice-fighting more efficient. Officials in Indiana and other states are equipping salt trucks with computers that, based on current air and ground temperatures and other metrics, tell drivers how much salt to drop and for how long.

This past summer, engineers in Ohio’s Hamilton County sought bids to supply about 15,000 tons of salt. The county rejected the first set of bids, which were about 50% higher than the $40 a ton the county paid last year. Two more rounds resulted in quotes of as much as $157 a ton, which would have exceeded the county’s entire $1.5 million budget for snow and ice removal, said Ted Hubbard, the chief deputy county engineer.

The county decided to try to make the 11,000 tons of salt it had on hand last for a winter of de-icing 1,500 miles of road lanes. To stretch it, Mr. Hubbard’s department has been mixing its salt with gritty, non-toxic ash left over from coal-fired power plants.

“When the sun shines on it, it helps attract radiation, therefore it helps melt the snow,” Mr. Hubbard said. “We’re sort of experimenting.” Mr. Hubbard said the ash mixture doesn’t melt the snow as fast, but it does add traction to the roads.

Nice

Interesting that they didn’t release data on the amount of mercury. That’s a big toxic byproduct of coal too, isn’t it? Those poor folks whose houses use well-water are well and truly ew-scrayed. They won’t be able to sell, won’t be able to stay. Brings new meaning to toxic mortgages.

since the tva and epa have been so on top of the coal industry …can we expect them to be forthcoming about all of the existing containment ponds and their safety? just wondering

The inventory, disclosed by the Tennessee Valley Authority on Monday at the request of The New York Times, showed that in just one year, the plant’s byproducts included 45,000 pounds of arsenic, 49,000 pounds of lead, 1.4 million pounds of barium, 91,000 pounds of chromium and 140,000 pounds of manganese.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/30/us/30sludge.html

just eFFFing brillant

The spill has reignited a debate over whether coal ash should be regulated as a hazardous waste. In 2000, the E.P.A. backed away from its recommendation to do so in the face of industry opposition, promising instead to issue national guidelines for proper ash disposal, though it never did…..snip NYT

As an arsenic/cadmium downwinder myself(ASARCO/Vashon Island)I know what would happen to me if I dumped my garbage over the fence. Apparently there’s garbage and then there’s garbage. Guess what would happen to me if I outed a CIA operative in a time of national crisis?

government is the only entity that can because government is us and if it lacks the wherewithall then we must give it/us the wherewithall.