TVA says ash spill cleanup could take 3 years

WHAT???!!!
http://current.com/items/90765112_ptt-may-need-50-days-to-plug-oil-gas-leak-at-t...

OMG... This is a major disaster. Where are the laws and regulations to hold them accountable? Ohhh, I forgot, it's only the little guy is prosecuted and help up to even unreasonable standards.

They shouldn't be allowed to store more that they can contain in case of a spill. The giant oil storage tanks you see around, are regulated that way. There has to be a berm large enough to contain either 1.5 or 2X the capacity of the tank, in case of a rupture.

Maybe at least they can learn from the FUp and change regulations.

F'ing horrendous. These bureaucrats need to be sued into doing their jobs.

Irresponsibility causes part of the problems, and then the companies lie to keep the public calm. If they confess and tell the truth, they'll most likely get sued and go bankrupt.

Quite wrong, I might say.

I agree. Make them go out on the Emory River with a nice big jug, fill it up, say cheers, and drink it down. I want to see that on camera.

I say we make every senior managerial worker at TVA live in the areas they deem "Safe" for the environment after an "Accident" and see how quickly standards for cleanup go up

this must be part of our governments new policy.......WAR ON EARTH policy ? WTF
Its not just overburden "earth redeposited" that they put into those ponds. its chemicals and surfactants that kill everything they touch....but people growing pot in cali are terrible for the environment ? WTF INDEED...cant we charge these co(ksuckers with crimes against humanity.....????

Yes csmonut, this is their idea of "clean" coal. And I believe I also read they were raising rates. So guess who will be paying for the clean up.

Study: Dried Coal Ash From Spill Dangerous.

And they are shipping it to Georgia and Alabama too. Nothing like spreading the poison around.

And just how many people will get chronic iillnesses while TVA doe shteir cleanup? How much of the waterway will become unusable?
No answers to questions, and our politicians are letting more mountiaintop removal for coal to take place.

Excerpt:

A massive coal ash spill in Tennessee could take three years to clean up, followed by potentially years of environmental monitoring, the Tennessee Valley Authority says.

The nation's largest public utility is pushing to get some 3 million cubic yards of ash cleared from the Emory River by spring 2010 - about 18 months after the Dec. 22 disaster at the Kingston Fossil Plant.

"We feel that although that is an aggressive schedule, we can meet that," TVA chief environmental executive Anda Ray told agency directors on Thursday.

A recent study from Duke University researchers suggested exposure to dust and river sediment containing toxic metals and radioactivity from the Kingston ash could pose health risks to local communities and wildlife.

Ray acknowledged that it was "time critical" to get the ash out of the water by spring "to prevent further migration of the ash downstream as the spring rains come" and to reduce chances of flooding in diked areas.

The removal of another 2.4 million cubic yards of ash remaining in the failed retention pond and piled up in a cove behind a temporary dike is considered less critical and could another year or two, Ray said.

According to TVA's timetable, the agency could still be dealing with environmental restoration and long-term monitoring for potential effects at least four years after the disaster or longer.

Duke researcher Avner Vengosh, who has been studying the spill and has taken samples that have found radium, arsenic and mercury in the ash, said TVA has done a good job so far of keeping the ash wet and under control.

But in an Aug. 15 study in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, Vengosh notes a "high probability that as the ash dries, fine particles enriched with these elements will be re-suspended in the air as dust and could have a severe health impact on local residents or workers who inhale them."

Ray said there have been more than 93,000 air samples, 2,300 water samples and 140 ash and soil samples tested by the state of Tennessee, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and TVA since the spill.

The results continue to show the air is safe to breathe and that well water and municipal water are safe to drink, she said.

end of excerpt;