Friday, December 26, 2008

TVA Minimization Spin Begins to Unravel

It looks like TVA's attempts to contain the public relations damage by downplaying the magnitude of Tueday's environmental disaster in East Tennessee are failing:
  1. Knoxnews disclosed Thursday that the ash in the Kingston dredge cell storage area was 55 feet above the "pond" water level and that dredging continued after dike problems in 2003 and after a slope failed in 2006.
  2. The Tennessean reported Thursday that TVA's figures on the amount of sludge belched from their ash containment system have shifted three times since Tuesday, and the latest figure, 5.4 million cubic yards, is triple Wednesday's total.
  3. Sandranista tweets information--unconfirmed by the press--that one resident vomited for 12 hours after drinking coffee made from tainted water.



UPDATE: A United Mountain Defense report seems to be the source of the info on #3. It maintains that Kingston residents told their correspondents that TVA dealt with leaks in the ash pond wall in 2004, 2006, and a month and a half ago. TVA officials originally speculated that recent excess rain and abnormally low temperatures were possible causes of the breach.

2 comments:

  1. Not to minimize the effect of this disaster on the people who live(d) near the sludgeslide, but where is the reporting from the Tennessean or other news sources explaining how this toxic waste is stored at the othe 16 TVA fossil fuel plants? What waterways and reservoirs have been/would be effected by coal ash seepage?

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  2. ut where is the reporting from the Tennessean or other news sources...

    Where is CNN and MSNBC and (heaven forbid) Fox News talking about the other toxic sludge sites at coal fired plants ALL AROUND THE COUNTRY? Where is the media talking about how President Bush, in one of his last middle finger gestures to the country, is trying to pass a new EPA rule allowing more such coal fired plants next to National Parks?

    I guess they're cashing all of those checks from the Clean Coal Initiative.

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