Coal Sludge Spill In Tennessee...

  and this isn't a pretty sight.

 

KnoxNews

HARRIMAN - Workers face "several weeks' worth of work" to clean up 2.6 million cubic yards of fly ash dumped across hundreds of acres after a retention pond collapsed early Monday morning at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston steam plant.

No injuries have been reported, but one house was swept off of its foundation and onto the road, and huge piles of a mixture of water, mud and ash covered Swan Pond Road in Roane County.

Officials say up to 400 acres of land adjacent to the plant are under 4 to 6 feet of material. An initial estimate projected that 2.6 million cubic yards of fly ash were released, said Laura Niles, an Environmental Protection Agency spokeswoman in Atlanta.

  This sludge can be, and more than likely is highly toxic. This area will be toast for a very long time after the clean-up.

The 40-acre pond was used by TVA as a containment area for ash generated by the coal-burning steam plant, Francis said. An earthen wall gave way just before 1 a.m., flooding the road and railroad tracks leading to the plant.

Technorati Tags: Fly Ash,EPA,Coal,TVA,Hazardous Waste Spills,Roanee County,Tennessee

Health Care: 77% Want Major Changes

   Whether or not Republicans will go along with any of those major changes is another story.

ABC/WaPo Poll

Seventy-seven percent of adults believe that Obama should make major reforms to the health care system, compared with 20% who said he should not, the poll found. Of those supporting major reforms, 51% of adults believe that Obama should seek them immediately after he takes office, and 26% believe that he should wait until later in his presidency, according to the poll. Sixty-eight percent of adults believe that Obama will have the ability to make major reforms to the health care system, compared with 28% who believe that he will not have the ability, the poll found.

   That 20% would probably include the insurance industry as well as most of the healthcare industry. Let us not forget the pharmaceutical industry as well as the Republican industry, as well.

Technorati Tags: Health Care,Insurance,Republicans,Barack Obama,Pharmacuitical Industry