By now most folks here know more than they ever wanted to know about coal-ash and TVA's spill in East Tennessee (an excellent overview of the hazards is here. This spill has been likened, unfavorably, to the Exxon Valdez oil spill, some have called it this Country's worst pollution event...
That's all the good news. The bad news is that the holding pond that failed is merely one of more than 1,300 such dumps, and the one that blew was a little one compared to many (link).
Now for the really bad news: many of these dumps are essentially unregulated:
Like the one in Tennessee, most of these dumps, which reach up to 1,500 acres, contain heavy metals like arsenic, lead, mercury and selenium, which are considered by the Environmental Protection Agency to be a threat to water supplies and human health. Yet they are not subject to any federal regulation, which experts say could have prevented the spill, and there is little monitoring of their effects on the surrounding environment.
I realize there's an awful lot on the plate of the incoming Administration, but they need to find room on the platter to address this shit.