I guess you never heard of the great fly ash holding site washing out into the TN watershed a few years ago?
Last year, it died in a state committee.
And in Washington, D.C., congressmen left a hearing room en masse, leaving just two colleagues behind.
But now it might have some staying power.
A major disaster late last year in Tennessee has given fly-ash legislation traction in the General Assembly and caught Congress' attention as well.
State lawmakers previously have balked at regulating fly ash, a gray byproduct from coal power plants that became a concern locally in 2006, when it was revealed that the substance was contaminating groundwater in Gambrills.
A bill proposed last year by Del. Tony McConkey, R-Severna Park, would have required fly-ash pits to have liners and covers. It died in committee.
And in September, the first fly-ash hearing in a House of Representatives committee in at least a decade was attended by few congressmen. Of those who did attend, many quickly left, putting a freshman legislator in the chairman's seat at one point.
But this time a new bill follows a catastrophe that has transformed fly ash - which looks and feels like dirt - into something more emotional, flashy and politically relevant.
On Dec. 22 in Tennessee, a 40-acre holding pond filled with fly-ash slurry burst, sending more than a billion gallons of waste into the surrounding area. It covered more than 300 acres, destroyed homes and polluted a river. The disaster, which occurred in Kingston, a town 30 miles west of Knoxville, was front-page news across the country.
Two weeks after the disaster, the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works held a hearing on it and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., urged federal regulation of fly ash.
"We need to have standards in place to make certain that coal ash is managed and disposed of properly," she said.
Fly-ash legislation propelled by Tennessee disaster • Environment (www.HometownAnnapolis.com - The Capital)
The TVA Kingston Fossil Plant coal fly ash slurry spill occurred just before 1 a.m. on Monday December 22, 2008, when an ash dike ruptured at an 84-acre (0.34 km2) solid waste containment area at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston Fossil Plant in Roane County, Tennessee, USA. 1.1 billion US gallons (4,200,000 m3) of coal fly ash slurry was released. The coal-fired power plant, located across the Clinch River from the city of Kingston, uses ponds to dewater the fly ash, a byproduct of coal combustion, which is then stored in wet form in dredge cells. The slurry (a mixture of fly ash and water) traveled across the Emory River and its Swan Pond embayment, on to the opposite shore, covering up to 300 acres (1.2 km2) of the surrounding land, damaging homes and flowing up and down stream in nearby waterways such as the Emory River and Clinch River (tributaries of the Tennessee River). It was the largest fly ash release in United States history.
The EPA first estimated that the spill would take four to six weeks to clean up; however, Chandra Taylor, the staff attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, said the cleanup could take months and possibly years.[5] As of June 2009, six months following the spill, only 3% of the spill had been cleaned and is now estimated to cost between $675 and $975 million to clean, according to the TVA.[6]
On January 1, 2009 the first independent test results, conducted at the Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry laboratories at Appalachian State University, showed significantly elevated levels of toxic metals (including arsenic, copper, barium, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury, nickel, and thallium) in samples of slurry and river water.[18]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingston_Fossil_Plant_coal_fly_ash_slurry_spill
Last year, it died in a state committee.
And in Washington, D.C., congressmen left a hearing room en masse, leaving just two colleagues behind.
But now it might have some staying power.
A major disaster late last year in Tennessee has given fly-ash legislation traction in the General Assembly and caught Congress' attention as well.
State lawmakers previously have balked at regulating fly ash, a gray byproduct from coal power plants that became a concern locally in 2006, when it was revealed that the substance was contaminating groundwater in Gambrills.
A bill proposed last year by Del. Tony McConkey, R-Severna Park, would have required fly-ash pits to have liners and covers. It died in committee.
And in September, the first fly-ash hearing in a House of Representatives committee in at least a decade was attended by few congressmen. Of those who did attend, many quickly left, putting a freshman legislator in the chairman's seat at one point.
But this time a new bill follows a catastrophe that has transformed fly ash - which looks and feels like dirt - into something more emotional, flashy and politically relevant.
On Dec. 22 in Tennessee, a 40-acre holding pond filled with fly-ash slurry burst, sending more than a billion gallons of waste into the surrounding area. It covered more than 300 acres, destroyed homes and polluted a river. The disaster, which occurred in Kingston, a town 30 miles west of Knoxville, was front-page news across the country.
Two weeks after the disaster, the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works held a hearing on it and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., urged federal regulation of fly ash.
"We need to have standards in place to make certain that coal ash is managed and disposed of properly," she said.
Fly-ash legislation propelled by Tennessee disaster • Environment (www.HometownAnnapolis.com - The Capital)
The TVA Kingston Fossil Plant coal fly ash slurry spill occurred just before 1 a.m. on Monday December 22, 2008, when an ash dike ruptured at an 84-acre (0.34 km2) solid waste containment area at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston Fossil Plant in Roane County, Tennessee, USA. 1.1 billion US gallons (4,200,000 m3) of coal fly ash slurry was released. The coal-fired power plant, located across the Clinch River from the city of Kingston, uses ponds to dewater the fly ash, a byproduct of coal combustion, which is then stored in wet form in dredge cells. The slurry (a mixture of fly ash and water) traveled across the Emory River and its Swan Pond embayment, on to the opposite shore, covering up to 300 acres (1.2 km2) of the surrounding land, damaging homes and flowing up and down stream in nearby waterways such as the Emory River and Clinch River (tributaries of the Tennessee River). It was the largest fly ash release in United States history.
The EPA first estimated that the spill would take four to six weeks to clean up; however, Chandra Taylor, the staff attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, said the cleanup could take months and possibly years.[5] As of June 2009, six months following the spill, only 3% of the spill had been cleaned and is now estimated to cost between $675 and $975 million to clean, according to the TVA.[6]
On January 1, 2009 the first independent test results, conducted at the Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry laboratories at Appalachian State University, showed significantly elevated levels of toxic metals (including arsenic, copper, barium, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury, nickel, and thallium) in samples of slurry and river water.[18]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingston_Fossil_Plant_coal_fly_ash_slurry_spill
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