The "'Clean' Coal Carolers" Gots Some Explaining to Do: Big Toxic Mess in Tennessee Is Much Worse than Previously Believed (Includes Video)

by Damozel | According to CNN,  the current estimate of gallons of ash-infused slurry containing "concentrated levels of mercury and arsenic" at present stands at  1 billions.  At least 300 acres are covered with the poisonous mess, "a bigger area than the Exxon Valdez oil spill."  A TVA spokesman says that they've never had a spill of this magnitude and that they can no longer say how long the clean-up will take.

Video footage showed sludge as high as 6 feet, burying porches and garage doors. The slide also downed nearby power lines, though the TVA said power had been restored to the area. An estimated 78,000 cubic yards, or 15.7 million gallons, of sludge covered local railroad tracks and Swan Pond Road.  (More at CNN)

Hilzoy has posted a most excellent comment on this disaster.  As she says:  THERE IS NO CLEAN COAL.   Clean Coal is an oxymoron.

 Hey, everyone thought the Clean Coal Carolers  were cute.  Who, after all, could resist "lumps of coal wearing scarves singing (in squeaky Seventies cartoon-jingle voices): “Frosty the coal man, is a jolly happy soul, he’s abundant here in America and he helps our economy roll…There most have been some magic in clean coal technology, for when they looked for pollutants there, there was nearly none to see"?  And that was not the only one, though it's the only one I know.

[T]he best ones are like Silent Night, where they replace “Christ the Savior is Born” with “Plenty of coal  for years to come” and also, in O Come All Ye Faithful– “Oh come let us adore him[Jesus]” with “And we can count on clean coal.” Yeah, that’s not going to offend anyone.   (It's Getting Hot in Here)

Red Tory 3.0 remarked:

Yes, courtesy of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) comes a truly bizarre marketing gimmick promoting the virtues of this widely touted, yet wholly fictional solution to the multitude of problems associated with the burning of dirty fossil fuels....

Who knew that Santa’s traditional punishment for “naughty” children had been re-purposed into something that’s just so much darned fun?  (emphasis added)

They even provided little outfits for kids to dress their favorite lumps in!  BUT DON'T LISTEN TO THE SINGING LUMPS OF COAL, KIDS.  Those little lumps are liars!  What would they know about "clean"?  They're lumps of coal.

There's no way to burn coal without producing toxins.   Got that? 

 

Dday says:

Coal ash (or fly ash) is really nasty stuff, with multiple carcinogens and heavy metals and even radioactive elements like uranium and thorium contained in it, all of which can create a public health hazard. In addition, it's generated when coal is burned, and no matter what is done with the carbon, the residue remains and must be put into landfills or captured and stored at the plant. Power plants generated 71.1 million tons of fly ash in 2005. Incredibly, some of it is recycled and used in things like footpaths, leading to contamination. But I don't think we've ever seen levels like this released, and certainly not into a reservoir....

Regardless of whether we have developed "clean coal" technology to mitigate the effects of carbon, the problem of fly ash would persist. Which is why it is so stupid for prominent politicians, including the President-elect to speak laudably of the promise of clean coal. I just saw an ad this week featuring Barack Obama put together by the coal industry, using campaign footage of him in coal country:

"Clean coal technology is something that can make America energy independent!...We put a man on the moon in 10 years. You can't tell me we can't figure out a way to burn coal that we mine right here in the United States of America and make it work!

Yes....We can.

There's campaign rhetoric that is relatively harmless and there's this validation of a dirty industry that has very real effects. Big Coal spent $45 million dollars this year to promote their product, which is currently to blame for one of the biggest environmental disasters in American history. Coal is not clean, nor will it ever be. Anyone who says otherwise is part of the problem.  (DDay)

Hilzoy says:

And guess what? [The toxic sludge is] headed into the Chatanooga water supply. Oh goody. There are reports of fish kills, though a TVA spokesman claims they are not the result of toxic substances, but of a surge of water beaching a lot of fish. However, I can't imagine a sudden influx of heavy metals and neurotoxins did the fish any good.

If you still believe the hype, please see this Sierra Club Video:

Memeorandum has more.

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Comments

[Deb]

test comment

[Charles]

I'm glad to see more sites get in on this story. Considering the magnitude of the spill, it has gotten almost no coverage outside of Tennessee.

[Gainesville Girl]

HI Charles,

Thanks.

This is a test post, too.

[Flowerplough]

Direct mailers from Obama campaign hail 'clean Kentucky coal'
Gristmill, 06 May 2008

"Barack Obama believes in clean Kentucky coal." So reads a direct mailer being distributed in Kentucky ahead of the state's May 20 primary.

Clark Stevens, press secretary for the Obama campaign in Kentucky, confirmed that the mailer came from the campaign. "Yes, it is an official mailer," he said.

Does Obama really believe in "clean Kentucky coal"?

"Clean coal" typically refers to coal burned in Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) plants with operational carbon capture and storage (CCS) facilities to bury the plant's greenhouse-gas emissions underground. There are no IGCC plants in Kentucky, and no operational CCS facilities. Technically, there is no "clean Kentucky coal."

There is one IGCC plant proposed for the state, but it hasn't yet broken ground. Most experts predict that widescale carbon sequestration is still a decade away. "