How Quaint! TN Attorney General Wants Water Pollution Data From TVA Coal Plant

[hatrack]

The state attorney general's office demanded this week that the Tennessee Valley Authority hand over water pollution data from a coal-burning power plant along the Cumberland River near Gallatin. Environmental groups and the state are suing TVA, asserting the federal agency is not doing enough to control groundwater pollution from coal ash, a byproduct of power production.

Groundwater at the Gallatin Fossil Plant flows into the Cumberland at points upstream of municipal water intakes, including Nashville's. Federal and state law limits the release of arsenic, selenium, mercury and other pollutants typically found in coal ash, which is stored in ponds. Pollutants can leach into groundwater and rivers, and the ponds themselves also can fail. In 2008, a dike broke at the TVA Kingston Fossil Plant, spilling 5.4 million cubic yards of coal ash.

Assistant Attorney General Emily Vann sent a letter to TVA Wednesday explaining that it was violating state law by withholding water quality data. State environmental regulators learned about the high pollution levels when TVA contacted them on Dec. 16. After the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation requested the detailed data, TVA declined, according to the letter.

TVA spokesman Scott Brooks said the agency notified the state about the high levels, but didn't want to provide "unvalidated raw data." He added, "This data is from on-site monitoring wells and there is no evidence that drinking water supplies are at risk from coal ash at Gallatin."

EDIT

http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/environment/2017/01/05/state-attorney-general-demands-tva-release-water-pollution-data/96217262/

[Docreed2003]

1. Infuriating...

Gallatin is my hometown. I grew up in a farming community just north of there, went to high school there, now I work at the local hospital. Old Hickory Lake and the Cumberland river are one of the areas biggest recreational lakes. There was a time when that plant, known as "Steam Plant" to locals, was one of the largest coal burning plants in the US. As a kid, we fished on the lake near there but my dad and granddad never let us keep our catch because they knew the fish had been contaminated with heavy metals.

TVA is purposefully blocking this investigation because they know exactly the harm their coal ash is causing to that area. They refuse to acknowledge their misdeeds which have potentially caused irreparable harm to the local ecosystem and the local watershed. Unfortunately, with the right wing power shift in this state, I doubt much will be done about this.

[GeorgeGist]

2. Heh, heh ...

"unvalidated raw data" shows no evidence but you can't look at it.