In one of the most devastating environmental disasters in US history, 5.4 million cubic yards of coal sludge was released into Tennessee waterways when a slurry dam burst and flooded 400 acres in the toxic waste. Water sources for millions of people have been contaminated with toxins that cause birth defects, nervous and reproductive disorders and elevate cancer risks by over 50%. The surrounding are was flooded with a “tidal wave” of sludge, leaving six feet of sludge that covered 12 homes and damaging 42 residential properties. Roads, gas lines and other infrastructure in the region were also destroyed.
The recent toxic sludge spill in Tennessee is now shown to be 48 times larger than the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989.
We definitely didn’t need a disaster of this magnitude to wake us up to the dangers of coal. Drinking water contaminated by arsenic in coal waste has been shown to increase cancer risks several hundredfold. Exposure to mercury pollution from coal plants has been linked to mental retardation and language development in children. Mountaintop removal mining dumps toxic mining waste into the valleys below, polluting the air and water. Coal plants spew tons of global warming pollution into the air.
Despite the ad campaign lies about “clean coal”, energy derived from coal is ALWAYS dirty.
And yet Virginia’s energy companies are threatening to turn the power off unless we let them build two new coal plants in Surry and Wise counties. The Surry site is about 60 miles from Richmond and 40 from Virginia beach. The Wise County site would be in the heart of the Southern Appalachian Mountains, one of the most biodiverse temperate forests in the world. A dry ash impoundment that being planned for the Wise County is located just above an aquifer, which could collapse and destroy the Clinch River.
The irresponsibility of these companies is exemplified in an off the cuff comment from Gilbert Francis, a spokesman for Tennessee Valley Authority, who when asked about the sludge that was spilled said, “it’s not toxic or anything.” If these companies fail to understand the costs of a tidal wave of sludge, how can we expect them to see the cost of carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere? When do we give up on companies who refuse to carry the burden of the cost of providing energy?
This should be a wake up call for Virginians.
Fighting these new coal plants is only slowing us down when we should be moving decisively toward clean energy. While coal companies have been allowed to quietly destroy hundreds of mountains and thousands of acres of our nation’s open space, they’ve also been quietly causing the climate crisis, all in the supposed interest of ordinary Americans.
Our continued reliance on fossil fuels can only bring us more of these disasters. The burning of coal and oil for energy when we have free and renewable sources like the sun and wind is not just illogical, it’s destroying our economy, environment and communities.
The best energy is the kilowatt you never use. Yet there are only five other states in the nation who use energy less efficiently than Virginia. An independent analysis of Virginia’s energy consumption found that readily available and affordable energy efficiency measures could meet 20 percent of Virginia’s electricity needs in the next twenty years. Investing in energy efficiency could also save ratepayers $15 billion in energy bills, pump $11 billion in investments into the Virginia economy, and create over 9,800 jobs in the state.
The choice is not between no power and a new coal plant, as energy companies would have us believe. It’s between clean energy and environmental and economic disaster. “The ecosystems around Kingston and Harriman [in Tennessee] are going to be in trouble, the aquatic ones for some time, until nature is able to bury these compounds in the environment,” says one scientist surveying the damage. ” I don’t know how long that will take, maybe generations.”
Image from Exxon Valdez disaster.
