"EMPTY PROMISE": The broken federal commitment behind the Tennessee coal ash disaster

[ensho]

http://www.southernstudies.org/2008/12/empty-promise-the-broken-federal-commitment-behind-tenne.html


When Earthjustice Attorney Lisa Evans testified earlier this year before a congressional committee about the looming threat from coal combustion waste, she warned that the federal government's broken pledge to regulate disposal of the potentially dangerous material threatened the health and safety of communities across the country.

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The federal failure to regulate the waste has put 23 states -- including Tennessee -- in a special bind, since their statutes have "no more stringent" provisions prohibiting them from enacting standards stricter than those found in federal law. Without federal action, those states can't regulate coal combustion waste disposal beyond the few obviously inadequate safeguards that now exist.

Yet the U.S. government's commitment to regulate the very real danger of coal combustion waste -- the nation's second-largest industrial waste stream with 129 million tons produced each year -- remains "an entirely empty promise," Evans testified :

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While the company is downplaying the hazardous nature of the material, telling the New York Times that it's "inert" and "not toxic or anything," an assessment by the Environmental Protection Agency found that the risk of getting cancer from coal ash lagoons is 10,000 times greater than safety standards allow.

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"There are multiple pathways in which people can become potentially affected by these heavy metals, including bodily contact, drinking water, air pathways and aquatic wildlife and fish," says SACE Executive Director Dr. Stephen A. Smith, "and we feel that appropriate warnings should be expressed to ensure the safety of Tennessee residents."

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* contaminated public and private drinking water supplies in at least eight states, including Georgia;

* fish consumption advisories issued in Texas and North Carolina; and

* documented infertility and other abnormalities in nearly 25 species of amphibians and reptiles inhabiting coal combustion waste-contaminated wetlands in South Carolina.
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what happened in Tenn. is a crime and some Barons need to be in prison.

Drs. and health teams should be all over the area seeing to people's needs.

[SpiralHawk]

1. "We republicons have done a heckuva job. As usual. Smirk." - Commander AWOL

[BeFree]

2. This was another dam failure

There are many dams around the country that have failed. The Katrina dams are the most infamous.

The barons need to pay better attention to their dams, and pay a price when they do not.
One way to ensure dam stability is to make all those responsible for dams is to make them live in housing downstream from their possibly damned mistakes.

[indepat]

3. That 66% of the white folk in TN voted to stay the course with McShame

is indicative that broken Federal commitments leading to such disasters is a.o.k. hunky-dory with most Tennesseans imv. :P

[CountAllVotes]

6. that is very true

I happen to know someone living in Kingston. Said person is a bigot plain and simple. Last time I heard from this person I heard some awful words come from the mouth. Bigoted and hateful.

I have not spoken to this person since - that is how bad it was. :puke:

:kick:

[indepat]

7. Being a native of the state that voted an outstanding US senator out of office for having had the

temerity to be an advocate of civil rights, I lament the mind-sight that seemingly continues to prevail in a majority of the populace. :D

[CountAllVotes]

8. how can you stand it?

I couldn't. Is everyone around there of this mindset? If so, I think I'd leave if you won't have to leave anyway being the entire area is contaminated.

That said, it is also the sacred lands of the Cherokee. This really pisses me off personally as I have some Cherokee relatives from this area in Roane county. :grr:

:kick:

[indepat]

10. I don't stand it well at all, but we are older, increasingly decrepit, and have too many

family obligations to make moving a viable option. :shrug:

[CountAllVotes]

14. I understand

it is difficult if you are older and not especially well. :hug:

I hope things get better for you and everyone else in Tennessee regardless of whether they are of the Rush Limbaugh mindset or not. :(

This is truly a horrible situation at best.

:dem:

[BR_Parkway]

11. Now he's got black water to go with the new black President - somehow

it seems almost fitting - but doubtful that people like that will ever make the connection about how their prejudices are exploited to keep them in poverty and ignorance while companies make off with all the profits of an area.

[Kalyke]

9. It's not really, indepat.

The problem in Tennessee is that 66 percent of the people don't know what a Democrat really is. We only get right-wing media down here. Most residents only know what a Democrat is through the filter of rightwing Republican talk show hosts.

It's very sad to hear what many average (not Republican or Democratic) voters think about Democrats. Some of the things I've heard from people I know came straight from Rush Limbaugh's mouth - and they aren't true and I have to argue with them to get them to understand that it isn't true.

Awful.

P.S. And, if you currently live here - you probably already know this - but many DUers don't. I had one DU become aghast when he realized that Randi Rhodes isn't even broadcast anywhere in this state (except maybe Memphis, which is already Democratic, so it doesn't matter).

[indepat]

13. My recently-deceased mother told me a few years ago that a much-younger, beautiful, and brilliant

1st cousin of mine had quit working just so she could listen to Rush. The brain-washed mindset of those of her ilk is mind-boggling and their numbers in this part of the country are staggering. And yes, she is deeply religious, but doesn't consider the wholesale slaughter of countless Iraqis for their oil to be murder in the context of biblical commandments. :shrug:

[K Gardner]

4. Thank you for posting this. I'm going to distribute it as widely as I can, starting with the local

"news" paper, which isn't reporting the truth.

[ensho]

5. good luck, don't give up, fight back

nt

[Kalyke]

12. Are you speaking of the Sentinel?

With their recent layoffs, I'm surprised there's even a reporter available to cover this.