In one of the largest environmental disasters in years, a retaining wall in eastern Tennessee failed yesterday releasing 500 million gallons of water mixed with fly ash (the material left over from the combustion of coal), covering up to 400 acres up to 6 feet deep, flowing into the tributaries of the Tennessee river, and ultimately the Chattanooga water supply.
Fly or coal ash contains a number of toxic substances including mercury, arsenic and lead, causing a whole host of health issues including cancer and various neurological problems.
To give a sense of scale, the Exxon Valdez poured 11 million gallons into the ocean off the coast of Alaska in 1989, and the largest spill on record, the Gulf War oil spill in 1991, poured between 250-450 million gallons into the Persian Gulf.
A video of the aftermath below.
For such an extraordinary event, there has been little or no national press coverage, and only minimal coverage in local newspapers and blogs. It appears the media would prefer to cover Obama’s vacation in Hawaii or the ongoing Illinois governor’s scandal. I guess environmental disasters just aren’t sexy enough. Or about as sexy as years of coal de-regulation that may have contributed to this event.
A bi-partisan report running 1000 pages was released in Alaska today concluding that Sarah Palin abused her power as governor to get her ex-brother-in-law fired from the state police force, but violated no laws.
I guess this is the kind of governance we can expect if Sarah Palin takes the office of the Vice President. Suddenly Dick Cheney’s shoes don’t seem quite so big, and Palin is certainly a better shot.
ABC released an excerpt from Charles Gibson’s interview with Sarah Palin that will air nationally tonight. Apparently Alaska’s proximity to Russia provides her with special insight.
When asked by Gibson if under the NATO treaty, the U.S. would have to go to war if Russia again invaded Georgia, Palin responded: “Perhaps so. I mean, that is the agreement when you are a NATO ally, is if another country is attacked, you’re going to be expected to be called upon and help.
Palin advocated the accession of Georgia and Ukraine into NATO, meaning that if attacked again in the future, the United States would be bound to go to war….
“I mean, that is the agreement when you are a NATO ally, is if another country is attacked, you’re going to be expected to be called upon and help,” she said.
Palin, who obtained her first passport this year and who has served just two years as Alaska’s governor, told Gibson that she was up to the challenge of being Sen. John McCain’s vice president.
In one of the largest environmental disasters in years, a retaining wall in eastern Tennessee failed yesterday releasing 500 million gallons of water mixed with fly ash (the material left over from the combustion of coal), covering up to 400 acres up to 6 feet deep, flowing into the tributaries of the Tennessee river, and ultimately the Chattanooga water supply.