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The Guy and I took a drive out to Kingston, TN last weekend.  Usually I like hanging my head out the window.  This drive was different, though.  Outside of some big trucks that needed to be growled at, the car ride was very quiet.  So much has gone wrong there.  I wasn’t allowed out of the truck because the Guy wasn’t sure about the water.  I wasn’t either.

When we got home the guy got busy on something for a little while so that he can post it here.  It is a map that will show you some videos and pictures from news sources as well as link you to websites that can provide you with information about what is in this water.  There are also overlays of the threatened watersheds.  Even if you are not close to the Kingston Coal Plant, it is important that you keep yourself current on the news concerning your watershed!

We would all like to let our neighbors in the the areas surrounding the Kingston Coal Plant that we are thinking of them and continue to hope for the best.

The TCWN staff went to the site of the Kingston ash spill this afternoon to see for ourselves the damage.  I have seen dozens of photos- but they do not do justice to the devastation of the area.  We were on Swan Pond Circle, looking out onto Swan Pond and then, the Emory River.  It is amazing.   We’ll post pictures tomorrow.

One thing that I kept thinking about while touring the area was the impact this has had on the neighborhoods.  I don’t know if folks knew their neighbors before this, but they do now.  We met this lady who was walking around her neighborhood passing out flyers for an upcoming meeting.  She was very suspicious of us, and for good reason.  Within the last two weeks, she has had dozens of strangers invade her quiet, picturesque neighborhood, media attention from around the world, aircraft hovering overhead.  She has had to become a community organizer, whether she wanted to or not.  Plus, she has to worry about the health and safety of her family and her home.  She never asked for this.  No one asked for this.

While I am glad we had a chance to see the ash spill, I can’t help but feel guilty for coming in, taking pictures and leaving- leaving behind all those people whose lives will never be the same.  I was glad to see neighbors taking care of neighbors.  That’s the East Tennessee way of life.

Thanks to Steve Scarborough for these amazing photos of the fly ash spill in Kingston.  Steve has been on the scene since the beginning and has great insight on what is going on.

All,

I just returned to San Jose, Costa Rica, from spending time in Monteverde to discover that on Dec. 22, one of the most devastating environmental disasters in Tennessee´s history occurred.  I´ve been following the online media from here and I am shocked at what the coverage reveals.

This problem is going to take years to fix.  The Network is committed to helping the community get what they need to have clean water and a healthy community.  We´ll be in it for the long haul and you can follow it here on our blog site.

More to come.

RvH

As a water quality policy person even I am unsure what EPA, TVA, TDEC, and other state and federal groups mean when they say the water is safe at the site of last week’s fly ash spill.  Safe for whom or what?  Safe to drink?  Safe to swim in?  Safe for the mussels or other aqautic life?  Safe for fishing?  In an apparent effort to quell the fears of residents the reports of water quality testing are vague and inadequate to fully detail the impact of this disaster on our water quality, aquatic life, and land use. 

The reports released thus far have had conflicting messages.  Just yesterday EPA released information stating there are high levels of aresenic in the area of the spill as well as heavy metal levels exceeding drinking water standards.  Is this safe?  The two streams directly affected by this contamination already suffer water quality impairments from mercury, PCBs, and chlordane.  How are these impaired water bodies able to dissipate the intense amount of added pollutants resulting from this spill as some groups have claimed?

It may be some time before we know the true impact of this disaster.  It is important for all monitoring to continue, full results be provided to the public, and direct understanding of this situation be advertised.  Of the utmost importance at this time is for those agencies in charge to do everything possible to appropriately and adequately clean up this mess and take every step possible to prevent such incidnents from occuring ever again.  This type of catastrophe has significant impacts to us, our recreational outlets, our food supply, our drinking water supply, aquatic life, and land use.  This is by no means an isolated event to a specific site in our state, but a disaster with the potential to impact the environmental as a whole .