2nd TVA Fly Ash Spill Smaller Than TN Disaster, But Ash May Hold Far More Toxic Metals

[hatrack]

Gypsum and ash that leaked Friday from a Widows Creek Fossil Plant dump in Alabama could contain even more toxic metals than ash spilled in Kingston, Tenn., just before Christmas, according to an analysis of TVA data in U.S. Environmental Protection Agency records.

The gypsum pond that leaked about 10,000 gallons last week near Stevenson, Ala., was contaminated with fly ash, the same substance that spilled in Kingston, Tenn, but an analysis of TVA’s substance releases, reported to the EPA, found the federal utility disposed of more toxic heavy metals at Widows Creek than at Kingston.

In 2006, TVA told EPA it poured 332,000 pounds of arsenic, chromium, lead, nickel, selenium and thallium into the Alabama wet ash pond landfill, while in the same year the agency put 227,200 pounds of those materials into the Kingston wet ash landfill. Over seven years beginning in 2000, the Widows Creek landfill received more than 2.4 million pounds of heavy metals in wet ash, while Kingston received more than 1.7 million pounds, according to TVA reports.

While the Widows Creek containment pond that leaked Friday primarily holds gypsum, a nontoxic byproduct of coal burning, it also contained enough fly ash that the material could not be sold for wallboard manufacturing as TVA does at other plants, TVA spokesman John Moulton confirmed Monday. TVA still sells some of the gypsum and fly ash from Widows Creek to Signal Mountain Cement Co. in Chattanooga, he said.

EDIT

http://timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/13/tennessee-widows-creek-ash-may-be-more-toxic-kings/?local

[Ichingcarpenter]

1. I'm sure Tennessee and Alabamian Senators will jump right on this whole disaster.

You have to wonder why their constitutes keep electing them.