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- Dralha, on 01/04/2009, -2/+158FTA: "Rather than try to gather up all the spilled ash, the TVA plans to lock it in place by planting seeds and covering it with mulch, said Bob Summers, the TVA's operations section chief."
In other words, they've decided to cover it all up and pretend it's not there. - Alheithinn, on 01/05/2009, -2/+100Let's require them to bathe in it, water their gardens with it, drink it, and then tell us it's safe.
- Echota, on 01/05/2009, -3/+93It's harmful but still safe........
Yeah right! - ozroy, on 01/05/2009, -1/+77What? This makes perfect sense. The water is safe, but the arsenic is not. So just don't drink the arsenic, and only drink the water.
/sarcasm - jericho4119, on 01/05/2009, -3/+69"Contrary to common sense" is not strong enough.
The media - journalists - who have a constitutionally protected role in our society to craft an informed citizenry, actively work against informing the public of the dangers faced by corporate "accidents".
First of all, an accident is an unforeseen occurrence. It is entirely foreseeable that a poorly maintained retention pool will fail.
Second, to claim one needs to wait for tests to confirm if harm has been done - after a toxic spill - is to profess ignorance of what the word "toxic" means.
Our corporate-controlled media works hand in glove with corporations to obfuscate the truth. And when you put corporate lobbyists into government as "regulators", then you have just gone past having the foxes guard the henhouse to actively assisting the foxes in their raids. - diggan8, on 01/05/2009, -1/+46FTA
Kingston Mayor Troy Beets said he let his grandchildren drink and bathe in city water at his house over the holidays and didn't worry about it. At a Friday news conference, he drank a cup of water he said was straight from the tap in his home.
"I'm gonna be fine," he quipped.
....famous last words - CNAIF, on 01/05/2009, -8/+42And America keeps it's lead in the race to become the first undeveloped country in the world.
- carnivore0311, on 01/05/2009, -1/+34heh, I live very near the spill. I'm a little worried about groundwater contamination.
- borez, on 01/05/2009, -2/+33Harmfully safe water... Hydroxymoronificatated no doubt.
- inactive, on 01/05/2009, -4/+35That is what Clean Coal looks like.
- inactive, on 01/04/2009, -2/+29What could be safer than arsenic in the water?
- laim, on 01/04/2009, -0/+26i saw a documentary on this earlier this year called Burning the Future. Here is an article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/29/movies/29coal.ht ... - inactive, on 01/05/2009, -1/+25Yeah, you should be.
You might want to monitor your water quality. - bjornski, on 01/05/2009, -6/+28But this is "Clean Coal". It's good for you!
- inajeep, on 01/05/2009, -0/+21Take a look at EPA's site and try to find something about the spill. Region 4 includes TN and there are no press releases or any other info.
- inactive, on 01/05/2009, -2/+23It's the EPA.
Their job is to make you think everything's all right in order to protect corporations.
"Clean coal", "safe radiation", "acceptable levels of fecal matter", "acceptable levels of toxicity", "moderate mutation", etc.
In other words: this is terrible for everything but it won't kill you right away. - MWeather, on 01/05/2009, -2/+19It's as safe as the air at ground zero was.
- DanaG, on 01/05/2009, -0/+17Purely out of curiosity, I wonder if anyone has measured the radioactivity of the ash/sludge.
Since it's possible for the ash/sludge to concentrate any natural radioactivity that might be in the original coal.
Or do we really want to know. - niradg, on 01/05/2009, -2/+18Remember when the EPA's job was to protect people from environmental contaminants, not to protect corporations from lawsuits?
- weister42, on 01/05/2009, -1/+15Take some of that sludge and dump it on TVA's lawn and tell them that's good nutrient for the soil.
- jbmcb, on 01/05/2009, -4/+18You can either bury it or move it, possibly spreading it around more. What's worse?
As long as the arsenic doesn't leach in significant quantities into the water table, there's no problem. Plants and organic mulch will soak up arsenic, binding it into much less toxic organic arsenic compounds. - Cowicide, on 01/05/2009, -2/+15They all seem so smug and flippant about the whole thing. Even the tone of the article itself seems like some ***** wrote it. You'd almost think that everyone is answering to the coal industry or something.
By the way... no mention of "clean coal" in the article. Isn't this clean coal? I thought coal burning was clean? Hmmm.... just maybe... it's *****. - Marmot, on 01/05/2009, -0/+13I usually just pick out the little arsenic particles... they're really small, but I find they get stuck between my teeth... No big deal though :)
- MWeather, on 01/05/2009, -1/+13Why? That's the definition of "ground zero". Would you prefer hypocenter?
- stonebear, on 01/05/2009, -0/+11Reverse osmosis baby. It's the way to go.
- fpol3, on 01/05/2009, -3/+14"EPA says water safe, but arsenic at levels "considered harmful to humans"
OP is just twisting the words around to get attention. If you ACTUALLY read the article you'll see that the "samples of the fly ash scooped up along roadsides" (NOT THE WATER..the ash) contains "elevated levels of arsenic" considered harmful.
Municipal water facilities are under pretty strict government control and the truth is your tap water is usually cleaner than those $5 bottles of Fiji or Aquafina, which aren't under government control. Tap water in other parts of the country contain arsenic too (it's a common mineral) but at low levels. I'm sure the EPA is doing their job here and testing the water levels during this time, as the article also states.
Trust me I have to deal with the EPA at my job (no I don't work for the EPA or the TVA, I'm a chemist) and they bend over backwards in terms of safety. If they do find problems with the drinking water they will sound the alarm. It's not some big conspiracy for media to protect the industry at the cost of innocent lives.
Buried...get your facts straight next time. - swollentiki, on 01/05/2009, -0/+11So where in the article does it talk about the Tennessee River? Don't get me wrong, this is horrible news, especially since I live about 45 minutes from this area, but the article does not mention the Tennessee River so you shouldn't put misleading information in the description.
The river that was directly impacted was the Emory River which does flow into the Tennessee River, but that does not mean the Tennessee River has been "devastated". So before I get buried understand what I'm saying is if you are going to post something to Digg make sure you have accurate information in the description. - HelmholtzWatson, on 01/05/2009, -1/+11yeah, he is or was. his appointment of chu as energy secretary may indicate that he may change his perspective:
http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2008/12/ ...
my guess is he advocated "clean coal" energy on the campaign trail for political currency. - UtahApocalyse, on 01/05/2009, -1/+11Umm.... thats what it means. Can you stop pretending that "Ground Zero' only referes to where the towers fell?
- david76, on 01/05/2009, -4/+14You see, the actual di-hydrogen monoxide is quite safe. It's all of the contaminants which are harmful. But the EPA is on solid ground, if you can manage to avoid the contaminants, the water is indeed safe.
- Dumbledorito, on 01/05/2009, -1/+11At that level of exposure? He and his grandkids will be. After the media leaves, the Aquafina truck backs up to his house and the heavy-duty filtration system gets installed.
- lunachique, on 01/05/2009, -0/+10Yeah, they said that malathion wasn't harmless when I was a kid, yet they warned people to bring in their pets, and it ate the paint off of cars.
- Anathapendika, on 01/05/2009, -0/+9I am a volunteer of a group that has been on the ground since day one. The group is called United Mountain Defense. We have conducted several different tests on the water and the coal ash including readings of radioactivity. While readings in areas are not "off the scale" in some areas radioactivity is a threat if exposure is prolonged. The highest reading was between 499 and 512 CPM (background ranges between 0 to 20 cpm)
- peaceninja, on 01/05/2009, -0/+9nope...i instead bought the iphone app that converts ash sludge into ponies.
- shig, on 01/05/2009, -0/+9The Kingston city water intake is upstream from the spill, and it is treated. It is perfectly safe.
Now all those homes in the area with private wells... - j0ew00ds, on 01/05/2009, -0/+9"Hopefully we can soon get back to an EPA which values the environment over corporate profits."
Yeah, right. Name one government organization that values anything over corporate profits. - niradg, on 01/05/2009, -2/+10No. http://digg.com/environment/Obama_s_Energy_Pick_St ...
- inactive, on 01/05/2009, -2/+10Holy crap, front page, and I'm not a power user! Suuhhhweeet!
- carpespasm, on 01/05/2009, -0/+8Whatever it takes to make sure 40yrs worth of mercury and lead contaminated sludge doesn't come rolling into someone's back yard.
- wherley, on 01/05/2009, -0/+7Prelimary water testing (not ash, water) from several areas show increased Arsenic levels:
http://www.datafilehost.com/get.php?file=ea7c2f75
Near the breach site the water sample test measured 1.083 mg/L Arsenic. The TN Water Quality Standard is 0.01 mg/L.
Half a mile downstream the measurement was 3.062 mg/L Arsenic.
Two miles downstream the measurement was 0.356 mg/L Arsenic.
These water samples were collected by Donna Lisenby (Appalachian Voices/Watauga Riverkeeper) and analyzed by Shea Tuberty, PhD and Carol Babyak, PhD at Appalachian State University.
These tests were mentioned on Democracy Now:
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/1/5/headlines#11
"Coal Ash Disaster: Test Show Arsenic at 300x Normal Level in Water
In Tennessee, new tests have revealed high levels of arsenic in the water near last month’s massive coal ash spill. Independent tests found the arsenic level to be as much as 300 times higher than drinking water limits. Two weeks ago, the walls of a retention pond holding the coal ash crumbled. Over one billion gallons of toxic coal ash spilled out covering homes and roads. The Knoxville News Sentinel reports the Tennessee Valley Authority had known about problems in the retention pond for more than two decades but opted not to pay for long-term solutions to the problem." - skipdog172, on 01/05/2009, -12/+19Hey guys, do you want to read the article? It says that they have tested the water, from all sorts of sources, wells, etc. The water tests out safe. The tests say the water is safe to drink. FTA:
However, samples of the fly ash scooped up along roadsides and river banks show elevated levels of arsenic that normally would trigger an EPA response, Sims said. "These are levels that we consider harmful to humans," he said.
So, they picked up some of the ash itself and tested it. Of course the levels will be considered harmful to humans. It is the ASH itself. Humans are not drinking the ash!! What do you guys want??? The water tests out fine, but some sampls of the ASH ITSELF has high arsenic levels. So good, lets just tell people to not EAT ASH. You guys are all ridiculous. - Uzael, on 01/05/2009, -0/+7I am surprised this hasn't been brought up in any alarmist way in the media. The stuff does tend to have radioactivity associated with it.
See this article from Scientific American: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=coal-ash-is-mo ... - GRANDPAMUNSTER, on 06/11/2009, -1/+8Our big corporate government protecting big corporate interests, being poorly reported on by our big corporate media. What a surprise.
- Anathapendika, on 01/05/2009, -0/+7I am a volunteer with a non-profit called United Mountain Defense who has been on the ground since the spill.
The major concern was undergound contamination of springs, since limestone is the most common rock form in the area and liquids travel rather quickly through it. The contaminants Arsenic, lead, thalium, mercury and many others may have traveled as far as 8 miles in the ground from the spill. According to PA Professor Dr. Volz who has worked on similar cases regarding the health and environment says that most water treatment facilities are not equipped to remove levels of heavy metals that are this high (3 to 300 times higher than EPA standards). Fortunately the intake for the treatment plant is upstream. If you are interested in this topic and would like more and perhaps more accurate and useful info about the spill navigate to unitedmountaindefense.org - LambertHeenan, on 01/05/2009, -1/+8Sure does say that. It also mentions (at the start of the same paragraph!) that the nice mayor let his grandchildren drink the water a few days before he tried it. Guess he needed to be sure it was safe first before risking it himself.
However I did not see the part where he says he's going to move into the sludge field and live there for a few months. Can you point me to that quote??? - absurdist, on 01/05/2009, -2/+9Dissipates? As in leaches into the water table? Thanks, I feel so much better about this now.
- carpespasm, on 01/05/2009, -0/+7No, ***** morons eat up that marketing tactic. ***** marketers threw that buzz-word out there and are still laughing their asses to the bank while also pinching each other because they thought there'd be no way someone would seriously believe that *****.
- Loadedforbear, on 01/05/2009, -1/+8Any one remember the big hype about Wooden playgrounds in the late 90's? Because of the arsenic in the pressure treated wood?
NY State Department of Health deemed the amount in the wood and surrounding soil to be at toxic levels so they were torn down.
Now mind you these were playgrounds that were maybe a few 100 sqft of treated wood, this is arces of sludge up to 40' deep and they are not sure its a problem? - CedEx, on 01/05/2009, -0/+7If the EPA declares water to be safe, they should be required to drink it for a month.
- TheZorch, on 01/05/2009, -0/+6There are two things here. The News Media isn't about honor and integrity anymore, its about RATINGS and sensationalizing news gets ratings. You also have big corporations in control of the media and so you get the Corporate Spin. Combine the two and you get incorrect information that's biased towards a specific viewpoint.
Eward R. Morrow is doing cartwheels in his grave right now. -
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