Do we need another disaster to move away from dirty energy?
Posted by susanna on 07 Jan 2009 | Tagged as: Coal, Virginia
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.
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6 Comments »
on 09 Jan 2009 at 2:06 pm 1.David Lewis said …
I saw that your post on the dangers of coal use did not refer to the radiation emitted as a result of using coal.
Tom Blees, in “Prescription for the Planet” presented some statistics from a study done at Oak Ridge National Laboratory on coal plants in 1982:
“a typical [coal fired ] power plant annually releases 5.2 tons of uranium (containing 74 pounds of fissile U-235, used in both power plants and bombs) and 12.8 tons of thorium. Total US releases for 1982 came to 801 tons of uranium (containing 11,371 pounds of U-235) and 1971 tons of thorium.”
The uranium and thorium are naturally present in coal deposits, hence when the coal is burned, these radioactive elements are emitted in the fly ash and are present in the left over sludge. Blees is a proponent of what he calls 4th generation nuclear power and he brings up radiation emitted as a result of burning coal to highlight the almost complete lack of public concern over radiation released from coal burning. He notes that radioactive emissions from nuclear plants are a tiny fraction of those from coal.
I wonder at those who say coal use cannot be or should not be improved because in their opinion no more coal should be used. Coal is such a cheap fuel that a lot of technology could be tacked onto it as it is burned to dramatically reduce its harmful effects. Instead of campaigning to say coal cannot be cleaned up or that carbon capture technology doesn’t exist, as Al Gore is doing, campaigners might consider calling for forcing the industry to implement pollution control.
I believe that we should be moving to decarbonize our energy sources by imposing taxes on carbon dioxide emissions – if the coal industry can build plants that eliminate carbon dioxide emissions let them do that.
No matter what the US decides to do on coal, the rest of the world is increasing its reliance on it, and given its historic responsibility for the CO2 that has already been emitted, the US should consider helping to develop carbon capture and storage for use in China and India.
on 09 Jan 2009 at 4:02 pm 2.A. Siegel: Another TVA Ash Spill | My 2 Cents Worth said …
[...] Not Just Tennessee [...]
on 09 Jan 2009 at 4:48 pm 3.Another TVA Ash Spill, with another river spill … said …
[...] Not Just Tennessee [...]
on 15 Jan 2009 at 6:18 pm 4.CCAN Blog » Natural Resources Defense Council, Environmental Defense Fund and World Resources Institute sell out the climate said …
[...] Post. Clean coal doesn’t exist. Does it have to take another major disaster to prove this? Or just the one that happened last month in Tennessee—50 times worth than the Exxon Valdez [...]
on 23 Jan 2009 at 12:14 am 5.Deborah Dix said …
People of all Virgina.
U R NEXT FOR URANIUM MINING! Uranium is all over VA and the East Coast!
I live in Pittslyvania County and our future my be Uranium Mining with Uranium Mill Tailing Ponds.
The mill ponds will overflow with our rain storms or the damns will burst during some of the tropical depressions or hurricanes.
The uranium water will be wash into the Bannister River, which runs into Bugs Island, Virginia Beach Water Supply, then goes to North Carolina and then the Atlantic Ocean.
on 21 Mar 2009 at 12:45 pm 6.Go Nukes! said …
Deborah Dix likes to spread her brand of crazy paranoia around the web. Everything is going to be OK. Breathe deeply and relax. The "Damns" are not going to burst. The uranium is not going to seek you out and kill you. Wind and solar power are great, but they are not going to be able to make up but a fraction of our energy needs for a long time because they are very inefficient. For the present time its either global warming-fossil fuels or nuclear power. The alternative is pulling the plug and going back to the stone age. Solar cells utilize toxic elements such as arsenic and cadmium. Wind turbines require tons of aluminum, copper, cement, etc. I'm sure you would be opposed to an arsenic mine in Pittsylvania county. You want the benefits of modern society, but don't want the raw materials to be produced. If you don't like mining, then try living without mining products for just one day. I'm sure that you will change your mind! By the way, is your computer powered by renewable energy, or is it powered by coal-fired electricity, like most of us?