Heavily covered here on Daily Kos, a coal sludge toxic spill three times the size of the Exxon Valdez is receiving ............
scant national media coverage.
There has been a demand for a criminal investigation of the Tennessee Valley Authority, but still...
scant national media attention.
The 'clean coal' disinformation machine has had a bad week - proving once again that it is nearly impossible to maintain a lie's credibility nationwide, yet still....
scant national media attention.
Here is the dramatic helicopter video from the local television station.
Read below the fold what the national media should be covering NOW.
And will the media coverage lead to the necessary criminal investigation of the Tennessee Valley Authority so that peopole are held accountable, and it doesn't happen again?
WASHINGTON, DC, United States — Greenpeace today called for a criminal investigation into the failure of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to prevent the spill of more than 500 million gallons of coal ash sludge into the Emory River, a tributary of the Clinch and Tennessee Rivers. The spill followed the breach of a dike at a coal-fired power plant owned by the TVA, and covered as many as 400 acres of land with potentially toxic ash as high as six feet deep.
Remember "clean coal". Well,in reality, Clean? Not so much.
Let’s see how the "clean coal" PR hucksters at the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity try to spin this tragic news: a retention pond holding toxic coal ash slurry burst Monday in Roane County, Tennessee, releasing over half a billion gallons of potentially toxic sludge that swept into the nearby town of Harriman and contaminated tributaries of the Tennessee River. The resulting flood damaged 15 homes, injured one man as it knocked his house off its foundations, and has left over 400 acres of land covered by several feet of coal ash, mud and contaminated water.
And that PR bubble that the coal executives find themselves in.......
It is always a headache for corporate pr flacks when reality intrudes and negates months of planning and millions in spending trying to persuade the public of something that just isn't so.
So the flacks at coal front-group ACCCE (pronounce "acky") must have a hell of a migraine today, what with the 400-acre toxic spill of coal ash from a coal plant in Harriman, Tennessee in the wee hours of the morning. As the Tennessean reports,
"Millions of yards of ashy sludge broke through a dike at TVA's Kingston coal-fired plant Monday...About 2.6 million cubic yards of slurry - enough to fill 798 Olympic-size swimming pools - rolled out of the pond...Cleanup will take at least several weeks, or, in a worst-case scenario, years...The wave of ash and mud toppled power lines, covered Swan Pond Road and ruptured a gas line. It damaged 12 homes..."
UPDATE: TAKE ACTION NOW (thanks to LNK and sschreiner in the comments)
Letters to the Editor. By zipcode. With samples.
http://www.democrats.org/...
The Nation action and media links:
elected officials at http://capwiz.com/...
http://capwiz.com/...
Media Links on Daily Kos
http://www.dkosopedia.com/...
Ask Obama to reconsider support for "clean coal"
http://www.progressivefuture.org/...
US Capitol Toll Free: 800-828-0498
.....That's just for starters.
Don't let this story die.