TVA Ships Toxic Coal Ash to Georgia and Alabama

[Towntalk]

This is a big request,a very big one indeed, but could someone list all of the things thay we're told cause health problems including food stuffs, clothing and so forth? It seems that every time we turn arould we read new articles about "new findings".

This IS NOT intended as a put down in any way, shape ir form, but simply for informational purposes only.

[Rick Rowlands]

Maybe, if you present proof that it does.  Otherwise it is conjecture on your part and not worthy of discussion.

[sfc_oliver]

Had to look this stuff up. I couldn't find where it was radioactive but I did find where 43% WAS RECYCLED.

The reuse of fly ash as an engineering material primarily stems from its pozzolanic nature, spherical shape, and relative uniformity. Fly ash recycling, in descending frequency, includes usage in:

    * Portland cement and grout
    * Embankments and structural fill
    * Waste stabilization and solidification
    * Raw feed for cement clinkers
    * Mine reclamation
    * Stabilization of soft soils
    * Road subbase
    * Aggregate
    * Flowable fill
    * Mineral filler in asphaltic concrete
    * Other applications include cellular concrete, geopolymers, roofing tiles, paints, metal castings, and filler in wood and plastic products

Seems like we have a pretty good start on the supposed problem.

[irishbobcat]

Senators Brownback and Conrad, at the coal industry's bidding, are circulating a "Dear Colleague" letter in the Senate. It pressures the EPA to maintain the status quo for disposal of toxic coal ash. Brownback and Conrad want the EPA to issue  "guidelines" that would treat coal ash like household trash, rather than regulating it as hazardous waste.  You can send a message to your U.S. Senators asking them NOT to sign the letter and to instead urge the EPA to issue strong federal regulations on coal ash disposal at


http://action. sierraclub. org/bigpicture_ coalash

[Rick Rowlands]

Perhaps a history lesson is in order.  Do you have any idea how much "toxic fly ash" is in the ground in the Mahoning Valley?  From the 1860s until after wwII everything in this valley ran on coal. Every house had a coal stove, every business a coal furnace or boiler.  All of the mills had boilerhouses burning several railcars of coal a day.  There were no scrubbers, just a layer of coal smoke that hung over the valley every day.  There were no type 1 and type 2 super duper landfills, the ash was dumped in people's back yards or in driveways or along railroad tracks.  Take a look at the Y&S rail line along Southern Boulevard and you'll see 35 miles worth of your dreaded "more radioactive than nuclear waste" ash being used as ballast.

So with all of that flyash around just how the hell did the human race survive?  All the envirowackos have no sense of history and no idea just how much cleaner it is to live today than it was in years past.  But its never good enough, no matter how much money is wasted to attain that tiny bit more pollution reduction, there will always still be something that worries you. I am convinced that the new cable series about life after Humans represent the envirowackos utopia, and many of you sit and watch that show dreaming about how to make it come about. 

[irishbobcat]

TVA Ships Toxic Coal Ash to Georgia and Alabama
Written by Becky Striepe
Published on June 8th, 2009

Georgia and Alabama are now storing more than 1000 tons of the fly ash that leaked from a Tennessee coal fired power plant in December.

The spill, which dumped over 5.4 million cubic yards of toxic sludge in the area around the Kingston coal plant, was over 120 times larger than the Exxon Valdez. It destroyed homes in the area and contaminated local water supplies. Cleanup is still underway from the disaster six months later.
·   So why is the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) shipping tons of this toxic substance from Tennessee to Georgia and Alabama?

There are two loads of the ash headed out of Tennessee: one to Taylor County in Georgia and the other to Perry County, Alabama. They're using area landfills as testing sites for transporting and disposing of this dangerous substance, experimenting with different sorts of rail cars and storage.
The idea is to test for the safest way to dispose of the ash. TVA authorities are saying that they're taking safety into account, but according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press:
The ash waste was stored in what Tennessee classifies as a Class II or industrial waste landfill behind TVA's Kingston Steam plant near Harriman [...] the spilled ash now will be taken to Class I municipal garbage landfills.
Georgia and Alabama solid waste officials confirmed [this] Friday afternoon, but they said their landfills are double-lined with both clay and a synthetic barrier material.
They're sending the ash from an industrial dump site to nonhazardous landfills. It just feels like the TVA still isn't taking the risks from fly ash seriously, barrier material or not. There was barrier material at Kingston, and we saw what happened there.
Coal ash is a highly toxic by-product of coal fired power plants. It contains contaminants like lead and arsenic, and according to Scientific American, is more radioactive than nuclear waste. Kingston-area residents have filed a $5 million class action lawsuit against the TVA for damages from the December spill.
This is why we need to switch to more use of solar and wind power. There is no such thing as "clean coal", only dirty coal with highly toxic by-products!

Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Green Party
Ohio Green Party
www.ohiogreens.org
www.votespisak.org/thinkgreen/