 Today is the one year anniversary (Dec. 22, 2008) of the day when, as Treehugger writes, "2.6 million cubic yards (the equivalent of 525.2 million gallons, 48 times more than the Exxon Valdez spill by volume) of coal ash sludge broke through a dike of a 40-acre holding pond at TVA's Kingston coal-fired power plant covering 400 acres up to six feet deep, damaging 12 homes and wrecking a train."
Adds NPR today: "One year later, clean-up is going slower than expected and it's more expensive too." "Residents of area say nosebleeds, breathing problems part of life now" writes the area's Knoxville News Sentinel.
Nearly a year later, living near the ash spill disaster zone remains an unrelenting horror story, those residents say.
Neighborhoods are desolated, and the noise from trains and trucks is almost nonstop.
Coal ash dust is everywhere, and sudden nose bleeds and respiratory problems are grim facts of life.
"It's just a nightmare," said Gary Topmiller, who lives on Emory River Road in Kingston. "It's like being captive in your own home."
Meanwhile, the EPA's promised regulations to tighten down on the handling and disposal of toxic ash from coal-fired power plants has been delayed.
Industry groups argue that if coal ash is regulated as a hazardous waste (no, duh!), it "could force nearly 200 coal-fired power plants nationwide to close". And that's a bad thing?
"A national coal combustion products regulation will alter the technology and economics of coal-fired power plants," Ken Ladwig of the Electric Power Research Institute told a House subcommittee. "Some owners would decide to prematurely shut down rather than incur the costs of compliance, while others would convert their ash handling and disposal systems and continue to operate in the post-regulation market."
"It is impossible to imagine that the imposition of basic landfilling standards will bring down the U.S. power industry," shot back Earthjustice attorney Lisa Evans.
"Generally, coal-ash is not subject to any concrete set of national standards to govern the safety of the impoundments or toxic pollution that leaches from them. Rules vary widely from state to state", writes Ken Ward in the Charleston Gazette.
So, what of Virginia?
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