The Coal Ash Spill in Tennessee

Concerning the coal ash spill in Tennessee:

Authority officials initially said that about 1.7 million cubic yards of wet coal ash had spilled when the earthen retaining wall of an ash pond breached, but on Thursday they released the results of an aerial survey that showed the actual amount was 5.4 million cubic yards, or enough to flood more than 3,000 acres one foot deep. The amount now said to have been spilled is larger than the amount the Authority initially said was in the pond, 2.6 million cubic yards.

You would think that after so years and so many disasters ala Exxon Valdez companies would learn their lessons and go through every effort to try and assure that any toxic byproducts were well-contained. I just can’t imagine why a company (even a government-owned utility like the TVA) would risk the PR nightmare in order to save a little bit of money or cut a little corner.

What worse is that all these people living in the flooded area now have homes that are in a toxic epicenter. Even if the CEO of TVA relocates all the residents, which he claims he will, it still doesn’t replace the homes that were lost and the memories that can only be contained within them.

via Coal Ash Spill Is Much Larger Than Initially Estimated – NYTimes.com.