Still Unfair

Corruption or Preference?

So I guess this post will be a short update on what seems to be actually one of the worst spills in American history yet I also feel like not many knew about. When I left off TVA had just spilled 1 billion gallons of coal sludge-waste into the local rivers. It was fined a sum of 11 million and then proceeded with a billion dollar plan to repair what it caused. I do recognize that they do deserve credit for cleaning up what they caused. They pledged to return the environment to its previous condition or better and I am confident that they made strides to do as such. But whether that will actually be possible or will they just return it to an acceptable state is hard to see. I believe they may be done with their repairs but finding information on the current state is very difficult. However, they did build public parks in the cleaned area to better utilize the space.  But what is the actual aftermath? How has the world changed to combat such catastrophe and what have we learned?

I do respect TVA in some cases for making this effort in clean up. They even spent another billion plus in order to convert their facility into a solid coal ash waste site instead of liquid, the solid state appears to be much safer... Other than that,  I think that's about it...Shocking right? No government inspections and tightening down of regulations? No probationary periods. Nah. The EPA did for years since the accident in 2008 debate passing stricter regulation for the coal ash. They thought about but probably decided it wasn't worth it (or they decided it was more worth it for them to stay close friends with coal).  Recently in 2014, they passed their first regulations on the "toxic" waste product. Did they decree that it was toxic and hazardous? No, they decreed that it was the same as household waste and should be regulated the same as landfills. They mandated that coal companies should regularly check for signs of possible future spills and leaching, but they are not going to enforce that rule. They mandated that they publish about the safety of their site and about the contamination of local groundwater. But all those results will likely get buried in piles of other information. It is up to the state and citizens to prove that they were harmed by the coal plant, likely after massive harm and intense legal battles. Oh and the old ponds that were used before for coal ash deposits and are currently leaking into groundwater? Well, they passed laws stating that coal plant must begin to line their active ponds in order to stop leaking. However, those ponds that are truly problematic from a long time ago are abandoned and actively leaking, but they are not actively in use. They will not be taken care of by this set of law. I feel that all of this was basically the state of regulations before this accident anyway now it just is explicitly stated...

Finally, did these regulations have any impact? I don't know. It's actually pretty hard to find information about any spills since 2008, but I kept at it. And the answer to the previous question is probably not. I haven't seen any recent spills since the regulation passed in 2014, but if I were to guess its probably a matter of time. There have been multiple spills since the 2008 TVA spill. I saw one in 2009 which was comparably small at 4,000 gallons (it is sad that I can call this small but in comparison it is). In 2014, there was also a larger spill in which 82,000 tons of coal ash was spilled. There was a fine of 102 million (which is a little more than the previous fine) for Duke Energy, yet I'm sure the spills won't stop. 

Sad note to end on, but it's the truth. No tight laws were made and even while they were writing these laws the spills keeping popping up.

No this is not the same video as before, yet another spill.

Thanks to all my readers. 

Cited:

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/12/19/3605869/epa-issues-coal-ash-rule/

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Coal_waste

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/02/04/3244981/coal-ash-drained-dan-river/

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/duke-energy-fined-102-million-in-coal-ash-spill/