If TVA can't build a dam to hold back this ash sludge, how well constructed are the dams that hold back all that water?

I've always considered them to be some of the pre-eminent dam builders in the world but now one must reconsider.

"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."
Hunter S. Thompson

EPA's website - which has pretty good info about what's going on at Kingston, better than TVA and much better than TDEC, which doesn't even mention this incident - indicates they are "providing oversight."

Re Kilgore's quote: "come by the office" may well be a paraphrase by the blogger. Kilgore may have said much what you wanted him to say. Or he could have said "come by the office."

It's hard to make sense of reports of what went on in a meeting if you weren't there yourself, or aren't reading reports from someone whose reporting you're familiar with.

I agree that the technical people need to be talking, but Kilgore is about 1000x better than the "communications" folks they put out the first day or two.

she's wanted this TVA board membership and now she's got it, where is she when there is an environmental disaster which gets bigger and bigger as the agencies/organizations/media that know about this stuff begin to (a) arrive in Kingston to see for themselves and (b)begin to ask the real questions that our local media goobers don't know how to ask.

Professional Counselors needed for Traumatized Coal Ash Disaster Victims

Hey yall, we are in the middle of field testing and going door to door collecting information where Swan Pond is where the ash blowout happened.

People are answering their doors crying. They answer their phones that way--we are dealing with traumatized folks and our field personal are science geeks.

We need someplace we can tell people where they can go for counseling.

Can anyone recommend anyone in Harriman, Kingston, Oak Ridge, or Knoxville--a center or something that we can send people to?

If you have suggestions, go here:
(link...)

Above is quoted from linked site, but my question is: Isn't the well-being of the people who have been harmed by this disaster not something else that TVA should be taking care of? (and apparently is not?) I am getting more and more angry by the minute...

I just had a thought! I bet a lot of the TVA board members have a lake house or mountain house, in addition to the house that they live in. Why not, as a show of good faith, let these families who have lost their homes on the river in Swan Pond live in those second homes until this situation is resolved?

More heavy handed tactics from the folks who care, your TVA.

(link...)

(link...)

If the area is safe, why aren’t people allowed to take photographs? Why are they refusing to allow scientific experts to sample and test the water? If the area is too dangerous for anyone except HazMat cleanup crews, why isn’t the mess being cleaned up with any kind of expediency? What damage can an ecoterrorist do to a toxic waste spill? Are they afraid someone might, I don’t know, clean it up? Minor correction. “ecoterrorist” was our friend’s word; tva private security used “environmental activist”

This "TVA Private Security" force seems to be taking some liberties. Literally.

Independent water quality testing results for spill...
For immediate release
January 1, 2009
Preliminary tests find
High levels of toxic chemicals
In Harriman TN fly ash deposits
Contacts:
Donna Lisenby, Appalachian Voices / Upper Watauga Riverkeeper, 828-262-1500
Dr. Shea Tuberty, Associate Professor of Biology, Appalachian State University, 828-262-6857
Dr. Carol Babyak, Associate Professor of Chemistry, Appalachian State University, 828-262-2756
---
High levels of toxic heavy metals are present in samples taken from the Kingston Fossil Plant ash spill in Harriman, TN, independent testing shows. Preliminary testing was conducted on samples from the Emory River by scientists working in coordination with Appalachian Voices and the Waterkeeper Alliance's Upper Watauga Riverkeeper Program.

Concentrations of eight toxic chemicals range from twice to 300 times higher than drinking water limits, according to scientists with Appalachian State University who conducted the tests.

"Although these results are preliminary, we want to release them because of the public health concern and because we believe the TVA and EPA aren't being candid," said Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., chair of the Waterkeeper Alliance.

The tests were conducted this week at the Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry labs atAppalachian State University in Boone, NC, by Dr. Shea Tuberty, Associate Professor of Biology, and Dr. Carol Babyak, Assistant Professor of Chemistry. Tuberty and Babyak conducted tests for 17 different heavy metals in triplicate using standard EPA methods. The samples were collected on Saturday, December 27 by Watauga Riverkeeper
Donna Lisenby from three separate locations on the Emory River.

More at Roaneviews
(link...)

Gov. Phil Bredesen said today he'll call for a "top to bottom" review of state environmental regulations in the wake of the billion-gallon coal-ash spill at TVA's Kingston steam plant that covered hundreds of acres Dec. 22.

The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation will conduct free testing for any residents who want their wells inspected, he said.

From Knoxnews today at (link...).