Tue
Dec 23 2008
08:43 am
By: R. Neal

WBIR: Dead shad line banks of Clinch near ashslide site

Monday afternoon, a TVA Spokesman said they were not aware of any fish kills and were working with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation to examine and mitigate any environmental damage that it may have caused.

When asked specifically about the hundreds to thousands of dead fish found near the steam plant in the Clinch River, TVA Spokesman Gil Francis said the sudden dip in temperatures could have played a role.

"I think it's too early to talk about toxins. We are doing an analysis but you have to remember you introduced a lot of ash material that in itself could cause problems with fish perhaps. But at this point we need to do an analysis," Francis said on 10 News at Five Monday.

Why is TVA compelled to make stuff up and expect people to believe it? I know I'm just one of those internet know-it-all blowhards, but it's times like this that make me yell at my TV. It's starting to sound like Baghdad Bob. "Dead fish? There are no dead fish!"

UPDATE: A similar spill occurred further up the Clinch River in 1967 when a fly ash containment pond failed at an Appalachian Power Company coal-fired power plant near Carbo, VA. The event released approx. 130 million gallons of fly ash sludge into Dump's Creek which flows into the Clinch River approx. 1/2 mile downstream:

For four and one-half days following the spill, the alkaline slug traveled downstream at the rate of approximately 1.39 km/h, killing essentially all fish in its path. During this period, 162,000 sport and rough fish were killed in the 106 km of the Clinch River in Virginia, and an additional 54,600 sport and rough fish were killed in 38.6 km in Tennessee, USA, until the polluted mass was diluted, dispersed, and neutralized in the river by natural physical-chemical processes.

Effects on aquatic life were observed as far as 77 miles downstream. (Source)

It sounds as though the Carbo event discharged almost directly into the river, whereas the Kingston Steam Plant event was more widespread over land and only some of the toxic sludge has reached the Emory and Clinch Rivers so far. We probably won't know for several days, though, the extent of the damage to aquatic life.

gonzone's picture

correct

You are absolutely correct.

That's about the stupidest response that could have been given.

The statement kinda reminds me of things our Dear leader and friends have said over the past 8 years. Not that TVA would have any politically motivated appointments to top positions or anything [cough].

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

R. Neal's picture

What TVA should be saying

What TVA should be saying right now is not much except something like "We've had a catastrophic event and we are still assessing the damage, the environmental impact, and the public health and safety concerns. Until we know the extent of that, we advise people to stay away from the affected areas, avoid contact with the materials, check with their local officials regarding water quality and safety, and avoid consuming fish from nearby streams and reservoirs."

Toad in the Hole's picture

TVA has a number of defenses to these claims

that most American utilities and private sector companies do not have available.

There are liability caps which are in place for federal entitites such as TVA and like the Knox County School system, they'll pay the limit of liability and go on fumbling around.

The biggest threat to TVA right now will be the clean water violations and the added silt content to the river and EPA should knock the daylights out of the agency on this one. TVA is immune from certain Tennessee Department of Conservation and Environment standards which are greater than federal clean water standards, however, the investigation that TDEC does will be of benefit and use to the EPA when they start water monitoring of the river.

I hope the families involved can do the best they can during the holidays under most difficult situations.

R. Neal's picture

I read that the families

I read that the families have at least been moved from the Roane Co. Community College gym to a nearby Holiday Inn.

Rachel's picture

Umm, the spouse says that

Umm, the spouse says that cold weather really CAN cause a shad kill. He's not taking a position one way or the other on what caused this one, just sharing info.

He also said there were some fish actually living in the pond (he didn't say what species). Hard to believe, but he's not no reason to make it up.

rocketsquirrel's picture

clean coal. clean coal.

clean coal. clean coal. clean coal.

ash? not so much.

how much ash are they generating annually, and why is it being stored in ponds?

rikki's picture

cold weather really CAN

cold weather really CAN cause a shad kill

By what mechanism? Ice on the surface of a pond can lead to low oxygen levels and fish kills, but that takes time. How can an overnight freeze kill fish? And are we to believe that the fish that washed up on the shore of Watts Bar Lake came from the collapsed pond? Please. The pond that is mostly water in the satellite image and most likely to have fish in it was unaffected.

A fish kill caused simply by sediment (as opposed to ingestion of metals) is perfectly believable, but cold weather killing fish in Watts Bar Lake seems about as likely as the lake freezing over.

Rachel's picture

I'm just telling you what

I'm just telling you what the spouse told me. I assume he got his info from the biologists he works with. You know him; he's not likely to be spouting TVA bullshit nor is he totally uninformed. He's just sharing info he believes to be true.

And again, he didn't say cold weather caused this particular shad kill.

R. Neal's picture

Fy ash containment pond

Fy ash containment pond failure, Carbo VA, 1967, contaminated the Clinch River (yes, the same Clinch River):

I first became seriously interested in lotic ecosystem
recovery as a consequence of a fly ash pond spill that
occurred in June 1967, when Appalachian Power
Company's 700-MW steam-power generating plant
near Carbo, Virginia, USA, had a 15- to 25-m section
of a dike surrounding one of the fly ash settling lagoons
collapse (Cairns and others 1971). Within less
than an hour, approximately 130 million gallons of
this material poured into Dump's Creek that joins the
Clinch River 0.8 km downstream. This caustic slug
equaled 40% of the daily flow at the Clinch River at
the time and blocked the normal flow for several
minutes. It also raised the water level several meters
and forced some of the waste approximately 0.8 km
upstream. For four and one-half days following the
spill, the alkaline slug traveled downstream at the rate
of approximately 1.39 kin/h, killing essentially all fish
in its path. During this period, 162,000 sport and
rough fish were killed in the 106 km of the Clinch
River in Virginia, and an additional 54,600 sport and
rough fish were killed in 38.6 km in Tennessee, USA,
until the polluted mass was diluted, dispersed, and
neutralized in the river by natural physical-chemical
processes.
Not only were benthic invertebrates eliminated
for a distance of approximately 4-6 km below
the site of the spill, but a drastic reduction in number
and kinds occurred in the Clinch River for 124 km
below the spill
. No major management techniques
were used to accelerate the recovery process, but it was
quite rapid in biological terms (Cairns and others
1971). Two years after the spill, when recovery was
still incomplete, it would have taken someone quite familiar
with aquatic ecosystems to determine the difference
between the recovered condition and the prespill
conditions. As a result of these and other observations,
two generalized models were developed (Cairns and
Dickson 1977a,b, 1980), one to estimate the prospects
of damaged ecosystems for recovery and the other for
estimating probable resistance to ecological stress.

(link...)

(Empahsis added)

The good news is that recovery, at least in terms of fish population, was pretty quick even though essentially nothing was done.

Brian A.'s picture

Not so fast

There might have been a sharp temperature drop during the June, 1967 spill--explaining all the dead fish.

Brian A.
I'd rather be cycling.

rikki's picture

It sounds as though the

It sounds as though the Carbo event discharged almost directly into the river, whereas the Kingston Steam Plant event was more widespread over land and only some of the toxic sludge has reached the Emory and Clinch Rivers so far.

Look at the terrain map on Google Maps and watch the aerial flyover video. The spill contour matches the contour of Watts Bar's encroachment on Swan Pond Creek quite well. Most of the area covered in ash is probably covered in water during summer, when the dams are kept full for recreation. Four to six feet of ash has certainly made it look like land, and TVA is managing flows to keep things that way while they contain and remove the ash. Swan Pond Creek drains a small area and likely lacks the flow volume to push that crud out of its way. Despite appearances, however, that ash is mostly within the banks of Watts Bar Lake when it is full. Fortunately, TVA can control how full it is. They can't control the flow in Swan Pond Creek, but barring a significant local rain event, the creek shouldn't transport much more ash than has already entered the impoundment before the dumptrucks and scoops arrive.

Compare Watts Bar Lake with the mussel-rich, free-flowing (? -- haven't checked a map to see how Carbo relates to Clinch dams) Upper Clinch where the Carbo spill occurred, and you've got a huge difference in potential ecological impact just by virtue of the integrity of the impacted waters.

R. Neal's picture

Looks like some of it got to

Looks like some of it got to the Emory River:

KNS: Mudslide from TVA pond breach closes Emory River

Emory River is impassable between mile markers 0.0 to 4.2 because of a mudslide from Monday’s breach of TVA’s Kingston steam plant ash retention pond.

WhitesCreek's picture

Cold does kill shad each year

This is a common occurrence and is usually not accompanied by the rupture of a 40 acre containment pond. My question is whether shad are the only fish showing up floating? I suspect not, but it could be.

As for the location of the spill, it flowed into a cove on the Emory River just around the bend from where the Clinch joins in and maybe a mile above where the Tennessee officially joins in. It's actually all Watts Bar Lake for many miles above the spill.

Bill Crane's picture

A major part of this spill

A major part of this spill IS in the Emory river. The main channel has been filled with sludge. That is a 45 ft. deep channel plus two coves have been covered. People the sludge is in the water in a very big way

Factchecker's picture

The whole world is watching

How many East Tennesseans have now gotten a glimpse of Emperor Coal's "clean" new clothes? Others have noticed:

(link...)

bizgrrl's picture

At CNN: Francis says, "in

At CNN:
Francis says, "in terms of toxicity, until an analysis comes in, you can't call it toxic."

Appalachian environmentalists compared the mess with another spill eight years ago in eastern Kentucky, where the bottom of a coal sludge impoundment owned by Massey Energy broke into an abandoned underground mine, oozing more than 300 million gallons of coal waste into tributaries.

The water supply for more than 25,000 residents was contaminated, and aquatic life in the area perished. It took months to clean up the spill.

If the estimates are correct, this spill is one and a half times bigger

rikki's picture

That CNN article is strange.

That CNN article is strange. Where does the claim that this spill is bigger than Exxon Valdez come from? That spill impacted thousands of miles of coast, and the slick covered thousands of square miles of ocean. The area of this spill is not even remotely close to that, yet CNN says this one covers a bigger area? 400 acres is not even one square mile.

Also, it is clear from the jagged texture of the mess and from what is left of the retained ash that the spilled debris was more solid than liquid, just saturated enough to flow. TVA said the "pond" held 216 million cubic yards of ash. That is a measure of solid volume. Converting it to gallons, a measure of liquid volume, is not really appropriate. If there was any standing water left in that pond, certainly its volume was small relative to the volume of ash. Likewise, the Massey spill was liquid waste. Comparing volumes of liquid waste to solid waste just doesn't work.

And they quote a SELC attorney calling Francis' remark "irresponsible," which is true, but then she turns around and claims fly ash contains benzene. It's laughable to think something that volatile could be a remnant of combustion. She also says there are high concentrations of mercury in fly ash. I believe mercury and benzene are both gaseous products of combustion, found in emissions from the smokestack, not in the ash pile. Some mercury may remain in the ash, but arsenic, selenium and other metals (including radioisotopes) are the main concern with ash.

So more sloppy reporting, this time in the other direction.

Rachel's picture

I think all the good

I think all the good reporters may be on Christmas break. The CNN story also locates Kingston 40 miles "east" of Knoxville.

Virgil Proudfoot's picture

How will Limbaugh & Co. blame "teh libruls"?

I'm waiting to hear how the right-wing echo chamber will explain this toxic disaster away as somehow being caused by Charles Schumer and Nancy Pelosi in order to make possible Herr Obama's forthcoming environmental fascism.

Folk Face's picture

Obama's Fault

Clearly this is Obama's fault.

TVA, is doing as others have pointed out, exactly what corporate lawyers tell them to do. CYA and give no room for admissions of guilt.

If this had been further up in the Emory River there would be ESA issues. Not sure if that will be the case now, but it would be nice to know if there was any incidental take of listed species by the spill.

I would be disappointed if we had anything less than a full corporate turnover after such an incident. This disaster should yanke the Overton Window a long distance towards a sensible concept of what 'energy use' should entail. Let's hope that this happens, because it is clear that coal can never be clean, it is not clean to get it it is not clean to move it it is not clean to burn it it is not clean once it burns. And all of that overlooks the poisonous impact on human communities and the relation of people to place. Let this be the straw that broke the camel's back.

And then we can start talking about yanking out these damned dams.

Mello's picture

the fish froze to death

(link...) I am so not buying that line.

rikki's picture

The New York Times weighs in

The New York Times weighs in with a thorough, balanced article. The main questions I have after reading this are whether TVA was overfilling this pond, why skimmers and other controls took so long to be put in place, and why TVA is still pretending there are no dead fish or contamination. That preliminary October report is going to be interesting. I trust the TVA OIG will take a good look at those reports and the management of such ash ponds at Kingston and systemwide.

Another critical issue is how much arsenic and other toxins have been leaching out of this unlined retention pond over the years? The location of this particular plant limits the exposure risks, but what about other coal plants? How much nasty stuff leaks out of these ash piles while they are functioning as intended?

Anonymously Nine's picture

How much?

This is much more than denial.

Form the KNS today, "They're going to have to do an extensive cleanup, that's for sure," said David Hitchens, CEO and chemist for AEO Advanced Environmental Options Inc. in Spartanburg, S.C. "It could get into the millions. If you've got 400 acres, and they're going to have to clean it up, and dispose it in a landfill, and the landfills charge $30 to $40 a ton, you're looking at approximately 2 (million) to 2.5 million tons."

That's based on TVA's original estimate that 1.7 million cubic yards of ash and water broke through the wall. TVA raised that estimate Thursday to 5.4 million cubic yards."

(link...)

That is more than millions of dollars. That is a quarter of a billion dollars.

Yet this is not a national story?

zoomfactor's picture

national coverage

Yet this is not a national story?

This story was the lead on NBC nightly news Friday night.

Anonymously Nine's picture

Four days after it happened?

This story was the lead on NBC nightly news Friday night.

Does it look like a national story?

(link...)

Anonymously Nine's picture

Dead ender...

Who is supposed to watch TVA? Bloggers?

They reprint press releases. What does the KNS really do?

Mello's picture

no, no, the fish jumped out of the water ahead of the waves....

"What happened -- when you have a surge of ash, that created a wave to push the fish up and onto land," Moulton said. "When the water receded, there were dead fish. They weren't killed by any toxic chemicals, they were stranded by the wave."

(link...)

Anonymously Nine's picture

Only at TVA...

"What happened -- when you have a surge of ash, that created a wave to push the fish up and onto land," Moulton said. "When the water receded, there were dead fish. They weren't killed by any toxic chemicals, they were stranded by the wave."

Great, the fish beached themselves. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Andy Axel's picture

More than likely, they were

More than likely, they were suffocated by the sediment load. They were dead before they made it to the shore, since the suspended crap in the water would have been more than enough to prevent their gills from taking in sufficient oxygen.

____________________________

Dirty deeds done dirt cheap! Special holidays, Sundays and rates!

Tess's picture

thank you #9

Thank you for bringing attention to this terrible tragedy, #9.

Note to Metuji: Is there anything in this world about which you are not the expert opinion to consult? (according to you?) I am fairly sure, since you live far, far away that you are not an expert about the situation in Swan Pond. Sorry to call you out at the holidays, but you can be an ass, sir.

This is something that should not have happened to the people of Swan Pond. Many of these good people have lived on the same farms for generations. Think of the "shire" in the Hobbit.

Anonymously Nine's picture

Only the great metulj knows the truth...

Anyhow, you are right. I can be an ass, especially toward #9, who is NO FRIEND of yours. He could care less about this disaster. The guy is a coal advocate. He's just trying to get out in front of this. I called him on it. He supports this sort of nonsense, lock, stock and barrel. He's trying to deflect any discussion about the disaster to his tiresome jihad against the KNS. The paper sucks. We all know that. But he wants to talk about that, not localized seismic events that may have compromised the whole area's water resource forever, or the truth that "clean coal" has nasty byproducts and that this disaster and its impact on those folks is going to bring it all to light.

You are an ass. And a liar or a delusional idiot. You read minds? You know what people believe? Only a fool would claim they know what another person thinks and believes. You are the poster child for "not invented here". If it isn't your idea it has no merit. Ironically, TVA is eaten alive with the same syndrome.

A person can support coal electric power and support clean ground water. Which I do. But if you think wind and solar will replace coal you are delusional. I am not a coal advocate. I am a power advocate. We have to have power. Bring on the new nuke designs. Bring on wind where it will work. But use the new designs that don't drive people insane with noise pollution. Invest in new solar research to improve the yield. But that coal plant in Kingston isn't going away. If you think it is you are stupid.

This happened because we trusted TVA. That trust has been abused since the inception of TVA. If we had a real newspaper we would have had a chance to prevent this. This is epic. It should have never happened. This is what happens when no one watches.

Someone has to watch TVA. It cannot be trusted. As far as deflecting the story, petulant eight year old child, who was the first to figure out this would cost a quarter of a billion dollars? Why is that not a headline story? Because it must be suppressed?

Your immaturity precedes everything you do. But please, do tell people you can read minds and only you know the truth. We need some comic relief. I am thinking of a number between one and ten...can you guess it?

BTW, Tess gave me a green cube once. So hate her.

Anonymously Nine's picture

Clean power

There's no such thing as clean coal.

Who says there is? Is there any clean power? A hydroelectric dam is close. But some people don't like them. Think there might be some pollution in the manufacture of wind turbines and solar panels? No power system is magical. Wind isn't perfect and the yield on solar is very low. Switching variable power into the electrical grid is a problem. But we have Ph.d's in geography on the Internet to save us.

We could just go socialist wacko. Get rid of the coal plants and the nukes. Use wind and solar for the entire county. Most people would flee this country. There would be no jobs because there would not be enough electrical power. Some would embrace that as an improvement. Some would go the Luddite way if they could. It isn't going to happen. People have to eat and pay their mortgage. Although our new President Obama has pledged to replace coal with something yet to be specified. Will he use this disaster as the spring board? It won't take much to tank this entire economy. Higher energy prices will not be received well on Wall Street. Be careful what you wish for.

No one with any thought process thinks coal is going away. But there will be those who will use this disaster to try. The irony of this is that we made them make the air cleaner but we didn't have the gumption to see what they did with the coal ash. Result, somewhat cleaner air and a ground water ecological disaster that is the biggest in the history of the eastern United States.

No one watches TVA except for a few environmental groups. Most people never heard of them until this past week. There were warnings this would happen. But this story will be over in a week. TVA will pass the $250 million dollar cleanup on to the ratepayers. TVA's net income in 2006 was $325 million dollars, they don't have the pockets for this. Nothing will be learned. And there is no guarantee this won't happen again at another plant.

The only thing left is what happens to the people at ground zero. Odds are they are screwed. It's the TVA way.

Rachel's picture

Only a fool would claim they

Only a fool would claim they know what another person thinks and believes.

How true.

rikki's picture

who was the first to figure

who was the first to figure out this would cost a quarter of a billion dollars?

KNS

Tess's picture

My bad

You are right, Metulj. I went rogue there for a minute. I just get tired of all the fighting about who said what and not about the important matter that Swan Pond has been destroyed. And, it doesn't look like anybody is going to do a damn thing about it unless Robert F. Kennedy comes down here or something.

Factchecker's picture

Stating the obvious

But there are relative levels of clean. Coal is about the dirtiest.

There would be no jobs because there would not be enough electrical power.

Depends how soon and how/what the transition.

Although our new President Obama has pledged to replace coal with something yet to be specified.

He has? Reference, please. (Damn, I hope he did, but I know he didn't.)

You're really not worth the time. It's always you vs. the world and nobody else gets it but you. Definition of a loser.

Tess's picture

There is already a wikipedia article about the disaster

(link...)

Another very interesting link to the site of a lady who works with hazardous waste:
(link...)

[quote]Sounds like the real concerns for Roane County residents is not merely, will their well water be drinkable? It's ultimately also clearly a question of what happens when all 5.4 million cubic yards of this stuff dries out? What happens when you spend your life drinking that water and breathing that dust-filled air on a daily basis?

I am not claiming to be an expert on environmental science, coal slurry composition, or waste cleanup practices. I am speaking to this issue simply as an industry professional trained to evaluate Material Safety Data Sheets. I maintain one of the largest MSDS record books that our OSHA inspector has ever seen, due to the huge range of materials we use on a regular basis in my field. My facility has passed every OSHA inspection conducted in the course of my tenure. That's it. I'm looking at this as if it were something i were about to use in my workplace, what i'd tell my assistants and students to consider in terms of personal protective equipment and handling procedures.

I err on the side of caution--there's no harm in say, wearing protective gloves you later realize you didn't need, or a particle mask where it turned out only a minimum of particulates became airborne.

If i lived in Roane County near this spill, based on the info in fly ash Material Safety Data Sheets, i'd start packing my stuff and figuring out how quickly i could move. :( [/endquote]

Anonymously Nine's picture

Your hero our new President

may tank our economy.

(link...)

Does your job require electricity? Tell me how we replace coal without nuclear?

If you think wind is the answer think again. Wind isn't perfect.

(link...)

(link...)

BTW, Biden says we need another $775 billion dollar stimulus package in addition to the $700 billion dollar bailout for the banks.

(link...)

So in the worst financial crisis since the 1970's you want to tackle coal power now?

Factchecker's picture

Comedy act you are

Who said wind power is perfect? Having a reliable brake system is not one of its drawbacks, though. And OK, you're on Rush's bandwagon that Obama wrecked the economy before taking office. Brilliant. But sorry no, Obama didn't run up record deficits when the economy was not shrinking (when will your side learn when and when not to spend borrowed money?), request the first $700B bailout, or spend a similar amount fighting this generation's Vietnam. Your hero W the Worst did all that. I thought his lax regulatory policies and tax breaks for the richest of the rich were supposed to "free up" and strengthen our economy. What happened?

Sounds like some of Junior's EPA inspectors should have been paying more attention to TVA's fly ash storage practices. Probably other agencies were asleep (or sleeping around) too instead of doing their job to protect the public. But of course, that's not what Republicans are about. Katrina deja vu.

Anonymously Nine's picture

Snork...

Sounds like some of Junior's EPA inspectors should have been paying more attention to TVA's fly ash storage practices.

You don't get it do you? TVA is special.

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