Environment

THE ASH DANGER AT KINGSTON STEAM PLANT IS NOT OVER YET

by Mushys Captures | January 16, 2009 at 01:20 pm

652 views | 62 Recommendations | 4 comments

Jason Mynatt, a narcotics detective for Roane County, Tennessee, can attest to the fact that the ash from the December 22nd retention pond break, at TVA’s Kingston Steam Plant, is still posing problems for the local environment. As he flew with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Wednesday (January 14th), he took these remarkable new photographs of the inundated area covered by the ash spill.

Ash is clearly seen still running off into the Emory River near Harriman, Tennessee (Photo 1). Only time will tell how far down stream the ash has moved, possibly causing great harm to the fish and other inhabitants of the Emory and Tennessee Rivers.

These photos illustrate the extent of the area affected by the ash flow (Photos 2 and 3), and progress of the working TVA is performing. It is becoming more and more evident that this new inundated area will become TVA’s new expanded “ash dump”! The area covered was once a favorite fishing and swimming hole for local residents of the Harriman and Swan Pond area. It is hard to image this area ever again providing that pleasure to area residents in their lifetime.

The yellow stuff on top of the ash is straw and grass seed that TVA helicopters have dropped on the area over the last few weeks. The effort is supposed to be for the purpose of preventing the ash from becoming airborne once the area dries out. Tracks through the sludge are those of the amphibious equipment working in the sludge. It appears that TVA will now have a much large area in which to store the byproduct from the coal they burn.

Two other things are evident in the photos. One is the great depth of the pond that broke (Photo 4), and the other is that only a narrow strip of retention wall remains between the remaining pond/s and another disaster (Photo 2 – just right of center).