Wed
Dec 31 2008
12:47 am
Kingston Fossil Plant Press Conference
By: Rachel

Here's what you get when you let the folks who know what they're talking about speak.

BTW, the TVA guy is Neil Carriker, who is with the Environmental Group engineering services. If I'm not mistaken he's a PhD engineer.

The woman is Tish Calabrese (sp?) from TDEC.

(Sorry to start a new Kingston thread, but I wasn't sure where to put this in a comment.)

Topics:
Bbeanster's picture

What am I missing here?

Submitted by Bbeanster on Wed, 2008/12/31 - 9:47am.

Not sure why I should be impressed.
The bulk of his remarks addressed the importance of not letting this stuff dry out and blow all over the countryside. It takes Ph.D. to figure that out?

Rachel's picture

What I was trying to point

Submitted by Rachel on Wed, 2008/12/31 - 4:39pm.

What I was trying to point up was the difference between the technical guys and the communications people. I actually learned something from listening to that six minutes, unlike listening to Gil Francis early on.

Tess's picture

Also, this is TVA talking.

Submitted by Tess on Wed, 2008/12/31 - 9:54am.

Also, this is TVA talking. They don't exactly have the greatest credibility at this point in time.

Rachel's picture

I think we might be wise not

Submitted by Rachel on Wed, 2008/12/31 - 4:41pm.

I think we might be wise not to confuse the technical people doing the cleanup and environmental monitoring with whoever let the pond fail in the first place - wrt to both credibility and competence.

Anonymously Nine's picture

Airborne

Submitted by Anonymously Nine (not verified) on Wed, 2008/12/31 - 9:54am.

The bulk of his remarks addressed the importance of not letting this stuff dry out and blow all over the countryside.

It is ironic that the greater danger is airborne. Yet the early pictures did not show anyone wearing an air respirator.

The hydroseeding is a tell that this will take a very long time to clean up.

We may see the burial of this ash very close to where it resides now if not exactly where it resides now. A kind of eminent domain via disaster.

Estimates of 275,000 to 350,000 truckloads of ash to remove present a huge challenge. This may become to coal power what Three Mile Island was to nukes. A lot of people will cheer that but the power has to come from somewhere.

Justin's picture

Everyone please keep in mind

Submitted by Justin on Wed, 2008/12/31 - 10:02am.

Everyone please keep in mind that the comment above (#9) is coming from someone who didnt know TVA is a government agency. Pay little attention to his "expert" analysis.

Anonymously Nine's picture

Not exactly...

Submitted by Anonymously Nine (not verified) on Wed, 2008/12/31 - 10:47am.

Everyone please keep in mind that the comment above (#9) is coming from someone who didnt know TVA is a government agency.

TVA is not a government agency.

Justin's picture

The Tennessee Valley

Submitted by Justin on Wed, 2008/12/31 - 10:55am.

The Tennessee Valley Authority is a wholly-owned, but self-funded agency of the U.S. government.

(link...)

TVA is wholly owned by the federal government.

(link...)

From its creation in 1933, TVA has been wholly owned by the United States government and is considered an agency and instrumentality of the United States.

(link...)

TVA is still a government agency but self-financed.

(link...)

R. Neal's picture

Ask a TVA employee whose

Submitted by R. Neal on Wed, 2008/12/31 - 10:58am.

Ask a TVA employee whose name is on their paycheck. My guess is it says "United States Treasury."

smalc's picture

The hydroseeding is a tell

Submitted by smalc on Wed, 2008/12/31 - 10:26am.

The hydroseeding is a tell that this will take a very long time to clean up.

True, it seems they think the rye cover will have time to establish before the cleanup ends. The hydroseed solution is intended to be a temporary cover, but I bet it is likely some will be permanent.

Tess's picture

Another expert opinion from someone not on the TVA payroll

Submitted by Tess on Wed, 2008/12/31 - 10:23am.

Text below is from (link...)

A reporter with an online engineering magazine interviews a former national mine health and safety engineer who argues that past inspections had red lights flashing and sirens blaring about the possible collapse of the Kingston fossil fuel plant dike. His judgment contradicts TVA claims that increased rain fall and low temperatures caused a breach that they couldn't predict:
Jack Sparado, a former national mine safety and health engineer, says that the inspection report indicates serious problems that TVA should have addressed...

Sparado says the dike has been failing since 2003 because of foundation piping, or internal erosion. There had been two minor blowouts in recent years and TVA noted seepage. The agency took corrective measures, Sparado says, but the only solution would have been to drain the reservoir and reconstruct the dam. “It was completely irresponsible of TVA to allow the dam to continue to be used when they knew of these previous problems,” he says. “They should have done a complete stability analysis of whole dam and essentially reconstructed it. It certainly should have been engineered better than it was.”

Go read the rest of the article for Sparado's opinion on whether the ash is toxic and whether recovery from the other spills he analyzed has happened.
 (link...)

smalc's picture

Jack Spadaro surfaces again.

Submitted by smalc on Wed, 2008/12/31 - 10:32am.

Jack Spadaro surfaces again. He's a hired gun and disgruntled former federal employee, take what he says with a grain of salt.

Rachel's picture

TVA to seed this weekend.

Submitted by Rachel on Thu, 2009/01/01 - 10:40pm.

TVA to seed this weekend.

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