Tennessee Gets Something Worse than Coal in Stocking for Christmas

The State of Tennessee Got an Unwanted Stocking Stuffer for Christmas: Mercury, Arsenic and Benzene…following a coal ash sludge spill. The land area impacted by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) coal generation energy facility accident is larger than 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. Tom Kilgore, CEO of the TVA, the largest public power company in the country and responsible party for the sludge spill, vowed, “This is not a time where TVA holds its head high...But we won't hang our head, either, because that won't get the job done. I'm here to tell you that we will clean it up, and we will clean it up right.”

In this New Year, Let’s Make a Resolution to Stop Doing Stupid Things.
A retaining wall, holding back 80 acres of sludge broke in Tennessee this week spilling one billion gallons over 400 acres, a land area larger than the size of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. The sludge was a by-product of ash generated from coal combustion at a Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) power generation facility in Kingston, TN. In some areas of the spill the sludge was more than four-to-six feet deep; and the amount of sludge spilled equates to more than 800 Olympic sized swimming pools.

The full extent of the TVA waste spill including the economic, ecologic and human health impacts is being evaluated. Because fly ash contains concentrated amounts of mercury, arsenic and benzene, it could have long-term ecologic and human health impacts to the surrounding region. And, the environmental containment and cleanup costs of the TVA spill will be enormous.

Tennessee must have been really bad this year to get such a rotten end-of-year gift. It’s worse than getting coal in your stocking. At least Tennessee could have burned the coal. Now they have a mega-contaminated site on their hands going into 2009 and likely requiring site remediation work for a decade if not longer. A root cause analysis of what caused the TVA event will be interesting. Will TVA and government officials identify a slurry of poor waste containment and maintenance decisions? In 2003 and 2006 the TVA’s Kingston site experienced smaller failures in the dike system, at different location than where the retaining wall most recently failed, but repaired them at that time. But still, was 80 acres of sludge to much for that site location? Why so much? Was the retaining wall designed to hold back that much volume and weight? Were the surrounding residents aware of the volume and composition of waste being retained in their backyard? Or will investigators find that an aging infrastructure and natural causes as the two pronged culprit? Much of TVA’s facilities were built in the 1950s and prior.

There is plenty of time for potential blame, however, that game is ultimately futile and wasteful. The situation in Tennessee is a microcosm of the US at large; and one that readily needs focused attention and action. Our infrastructure is aging. We have an enormous environmental waste challenge. We have an enormous energy challenge. These challenges are not mutually exclusive of one another. Instead, they are integrated in how we produce and use energy, how highly dependent our economy is on fossil fuels, and the waste and environmental damages associated with a fossil fuel based energy infrastructure. Even in the absence of the Tennessee coal sludge spill…the TVA (and Tennessee) still had an enormous one billion gallon waste issue on its hands.

No one deserves anything worse than coal for the holiday, particularly an environmental contamination that can potentially have long-term impacts on water, ecology and economy of the 400 acre Kingston, TN site. There are plenty of Superfund and other environmentally contaminated sites across the US that need to be characterized, remedied and cleaned-up. Accidents and unintended consequences of doing business occur all the time; and often we have risk mitigation plans in place for those. But often we see unfortunate events like the TVA and Exxon Valdez spills occur that can be prevented. In 2009 let us make a commitment to reduce the risk of future environmental accidents from occurring and spend time revitalizing our economy by focusing on the health, resilience and vitality of US infrastructure.

Mark C. Coleman
Senior Associate & World Inc. Case Leader, AHC Group, Inc.
Mark@ahcgroup.com

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