Tennessee Coal Plant Catastrophe. Larger than Exxon's. How does ours work?

[stephendare]

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/12/tennessee-coal-ash-slurry-spill-48-times-bigger-than-exxon-valdez-spill.php

http://www.youtube.com/v/rGmVCABMRRQ

An environmental disaster of epic proportions just happened in Tennessee. Monday night 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.

According to the EPA the cleanup will take at least several weeks, but could take years. Officials also said that the magnitude of this spill is such that the entire area could be declared a federal superfund site.

Toxic Sludge Got Into Tributary of Chattanooga Water Supply
Apart from the immediate physical damage, the issue is what toxic substances are in that sludge: Mercury, arsenic, lead, beryllium, cadmium. Though officials said the amounts of these poisons in the sludge could not be determined on Monday, they could (at the mild end) irritate skin or trigger allergies or (longer term) cause cancer or neurological problems.

This toxic sludge got into the Emory River, a tributary of the Clinch and Tennessee Rivers: The water supply for Chattanooga, Tennessee as well as millions of people living downstream in Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky. TVA says that as yet the spill (which they are characterizing as a mudslide or landslide, but frankly it's still toxic...) has not affected the water quality in the Emory River.

High Levels of Rain, Thaw Freeze Cycles May Have Weakened Pond Walls
On why the spill happened, the Tennessean speculated,

    The area received almost 5 inches of rain this month, compared with the usual 2.8 inches. Freeze and thaw cycles may have undermined the sides of the pond. The last formal report on the condition of the 40-acre pond â€" an unlined, earthen structure â€" was issued in January and was unavailable Monday, officials said.

Greenpeace Calls for Criminal Investigation
In a press release issued yesterday, noting that spills of similar substances have resulted in felony charges, Greenpeace called for a criminal investigation into the spill:

    "Every facility like this is supposed to have a spill contingency plan to prevent this kind of disaster," said Rick Hind, Greenpeace Legislative Director. "The authorities need to get to the bottom of what went wrong and hold the responsible parties accountable."

TVA Releases Official Statement
In an official statement, TVA president and CEO Tom Kilgore said,

    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. We deeply regret that a retention wall for ash containment at our Kingston Fossil Plant failed, resulting in an ash slide and damage to nearby homes.

    We are grateful no injuries have been reported, and we will take all appropriate actions to assist those affected by this situation.

    We appreciate the continuing efforts of local and state agencies, as well as TVA employees, to respond to this situation quickly and efficiently. Our intense effort to respond effectively will continue 24/7 for the foreseeable future with the safety of the public our top priority.

Clean Coal, Yeah Right
As many people in the blog world are noting, it's this sort of thing that really makes the proposition of clean coal so absurd. Even if you can scrub all the CO2 out of it, you still have so many other toxic waste products associated with burning coal that have to be stored that carbon emissions are just a part of the problem. How many other holding ponds are out there waiting to burst?

[Ocklawaha]

Rail travel around the year 1900 was not pleasant. After a long trip on a coal-powered train, travellers would frequently emerge covered in black soot. The exception to that rule were locomotives powered by anthracite, a clean-burning form of coal. The Lackawanna owned vast anthracite mines in Pennsylvania, and could legitimately claim that their passengers' clothes would still look clean after a long trip.

Stephen, I'm on the fence on this one and here's why.

Coal is as natural as sand - it's not something we just cooked up, water, rivers, creeks and falls have been flowing over this stuff for millions of years. As a railroad guy, I also know it depends a lot on what you do with the coal that makes the difference... For example, O2 can be cooked off in ovens and you get coke. Coke burns much hotter then coal, and you can regulate some of it's chemical properties. On the other hand, if we restored locomotive 1504 in Jacksonville, we could burn Anthricite Coal, nearly smokeless and cinderless hard coal, found mostly in PA, and MD.

These ponds or tailing dams are common on all industrial sites in the mountain regions which deal with mineral extraction. Limestone, Coal, Silver, Gold  etc... The best product (ORE) is hauled off or stored for use. the base of the pile becomes compacted dust. Add water and you get sludge. Add mountains and you get these weak tailing ponds that are held back by substandard "dams" of Ore waste.

I know there was a bad one in Wales back about 1960+/- and it wiped out a school and village. There have been several others in PA. One of the largest was a mining company that was repeatedly warned that the dam was unstable. They ignored it until the whole town was swept away one rainy week. If I recall the company got everyone to sign on with a super attorney that got each survivor about $4,000 dollars!!

We won't have these situations in Florida, in fact our coal storage area's are covered and contained. PA and MD must go slow to regulate these industrys as they account for a huge part of the economy.

YEAH! CLEAN COAL! ANTHRICITE! Look up the old ad's for "THE LACKAWANNA RAILROAD" or "PHOEBE SNOW" , You'll read why the early "Lady" rode the Lackawanna in her white dresses! It was the route of Anthricite.

OCKLAWAHA

[BridgeTroll]

Hmmm... Clean coal is out.  Oil is out.  Nuclear is totally unacceptable.  Windmills and solar panels do not replace what has been declared "out".  Perhaps better methods of dealing with the wastes each of these methods produce is really the answer...

[Ocklawaha]

We won't have these situations in Florida, in fact our coal storage area's are covered and contained. PA and MD must go slow to regulate these industrys as they account for a huge part of the economy.

Sorry for the confusion, but the answer was hidden in my post. Without mountains, steep hills, and deep valleys all damed with waste slury that "MIGHT"  be holding back a billion gallons of water... It just CAN'T HAPPEN HERE.
Our's is more likely used for land fill, road bed, railroad bed (lowest layer), asphalt or other purposes. We can't build dam's. (1. Note)

OCKLAWAHA

1. Florida "could" build hydro-electric on several rivers, but it would be at enviromental cost. Some of us laid down in front of the bulldozers at a place called EUREKA DAM, up stream from the RODMAN DAM by Palatka. In fact some were ready for another war, a REAL one. Nixon backed down and they killed the cross-Florida canal.

We were called "DEFENDERS OF THE OCKLAWAHA"....

And now, you know the rest of the story!

[Jason]

Is clean coal 'out'?  or is it a matter of making sure that we process the slurry correctly?

Im just ignorant of how our own coal powered plants work and whether or not this is an applicable concern for us.

Is it?

Does anyone know?

Based on what I've seen of JEA's coal storage facilities, it looks like locally everything is very well taken care of.  The geodesic domes that contain the coal are built to withstand hurricane force winds and are able to be sealed from the elements.  The only concern here would be a direct hit from a cat 4 or 5 hurricane that produces a massive storm surge that could wash away the domes and coal within.

[BridgeTroll]

How is the waste ash disposed of?

[Jason]

It looks like we have the same type of slurry pit to store the ash.  From a little bit of Googling, the pits are dug deep and lined with impermeable material.  Once filled they are covered.

[Dapperdan]

wow. Hopefully the TVA can get this cleaned up or they could lose a lot of money. They run all the hydro power in Tennessee from dams like Fontana Dam. it is actually a pretty spectacular system they run. I hope they can get this cleaned up and all.