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labricoleuseIt's a news story that many people might have missed, since it came out over Christmas--the catastrophic coal slurry impoundment breach which occurred December 22nd in Roane County, Tennessee. Despite the epic scale of the disaster--today's revised estimate by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) puts the spillage at 5.4 million cubic yards of slurry (that's around 1.09 billion gallons of soupy sludge)--it didn't make it into many national news sources until Christmas day. Some of this delay might be explained by reduced staff in news services from economic cutbacks and/or the Christmas holiday, or the lack of staggering numbers of human casualties or personal property destruction. No one died in the avalanche/flood, and because of the limited population density only a few houses were destroyed. The devastation is measured in ecological terms: forests and wildlife decimated, fish kills, lakes and streams choked with the muck or completely obliterated.
It's hard to conceive of the scale of this disaster. For comparison, the Exxon Valdez incident was 10.8 million gallons of crude oil spilled, so this is around 100 times as much material released into the Tennessee river system and deluging the countryside.
It is a departure from my topic to write about this in La Bricoleuse--ostensibly my topic being restricted to areas of professional costume craftwork for performance. On rare occasions though (such as this one), I do depart from the subject. I do have a personal concern for what's going on--I grew up in east Tennessee and my family has lived here for generations; I went to undergrad at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, literally just up the highway from the affected area, and had many classmates and friends from the Harriman/Roane County area. My grandparents live a couple counties over. This has happened to a place i call "home."
Really though, this *is* somewhat related to the general focus of La Bricoleuse, because what i want to use the disaster to explore is the idea of hazard information dissemination and evaluation of hazard info in terms of personal precaution and protection.
When Hurricane Katrina hit, i found the most compelling media coverage to be right here on LiveJournal, in the friends list of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
katrinacane, an LJ account aggregate of New Orleans residents--evacuees blogging their relocation experience, city residents planning to ride out the storm, a security systems expert who stayed behind and updated almost hourly from his company's bunker. In a similar manner, i've been following the twitter hashtag #coalash for updates from diverse sources ranging from Roane County resident tweeters to Knoxville Sentinel reporters to national media representatives to the volunteers of the United Mountain Defense, a local non-profit who have been distributing bottled water and hazard information to affected residents.
There's a lot of discussion in the blogosphere in comment threads appended to news articles about the questions about potential health hazards of coal slurry--a lot of heated opinions on both sides (dangerous vs. not dangerous), spin on both sides, a lot of "butt covering" as well. That's to be expected and i can see everyone's reasoning behind their positions. The TVA doesn't want to cause a panic among residents or look like even bigger bunglers than they already do; the residents though are already panicked from seeing their homes and forests swept away.
The TVA is telling a positive spin on the truth in saying that the bulk of the sludge "consists of inert material not harmful to the environment;" any dilute solution is composed of a small amount of harmful material and a large amount of harmless material. The TVA sees the glass as being mostly full of drinkable water OMG YAY! :D
The environmentalists are putting a negative spin on the truth by focusing on the truly harmful ingredients in coal slurry: heavy metals, silicates, and sometimes radioactive material. They see the glass as being contaminated with gross crap that will hurt you EW YUCK OMG VOM. :O~
I keep seeing arguments on blogs come down to people asking each other, "Would you drink a glass of it?" (Initial water tests by the public utility came back within mandated acceptable levels of toxicity.) The issue is not whether you'd drink a glass of it, if that would be a safe thing to do or something with an acceptable level of risk attached. The question in terms of water quality is whether you'd drink a glass of it today, then a slightly more concentrated glass of it tomorrow, then a slightly more concentrated glass of it the next day, and so on from here on out until all traces of the fly ash spill have been erased from the streams, rivers, forests, soil, and water table. I'm no environmental scientist but me, i wouldn't.
The real question that residents should be asking is not, "Is our water safe to drink?" though.
The foremost question is, "What are the risks attached to long-term exposure to fly ash?"
And luckily, that's an area in which i do have actual practical professional expertise, which is why i'm writing about it here, because it's something that costume crafts artisans address on a regular basis: what the risks are associated with a material or medium or chemical or solvent, and how to take adequate precautions when using it.
Fly ash is not just a waste byproduct of burning coal. Fly ash is also a commodity sold in quantity to the concrete industry as a composite part of cinderblock and concrete manufacture. That means that by law, fly ash manufacturers and distributors must provide a Material Safety Data Sheet to consumers on possible risks and hazards. I don't know if the TVA sells a quantity of their fly ash output to industry; if they do, residents could track down a copy of the TVA's fly ash MSDS on the particular slurry contained in the ruptured reservoir for the most accurate info. However, enough other companies do sell their fly ash and make their MSDS available on the web that a google search on "fly ash msds" turns up several examples. Appalachian coal is bituminous (as opposed to anthracitic), so any MSDS for fly ash from bituminous coal would give you a starting place on evaluating the hazards. Here's four from the first page of search results:
On these kinds of MSDS hunts, i also pay attention to the revision dates--of these, the best one to look at with respect to the Roane County TVA coal ash spill is that SEFA Group Bituminous Fly Ash MSDS, which specifies bituminous coal as the source of the fly ash, and which has a revision date of June 2008.
I always tell my students that the point of MSDS evaluation is not to be alarmist or extremist; it is to make as informed a decision as possible, and where you've got to take a guess, to err on the side of caution.
Looking at that SEFA Group document, the first thing to inspect is Section 2, entitled "Product Composition and Major Constituents," which lists any hazardous materials contained in a substance. For fly ash from bituminous coal, they list several (silicates, metals) which have known Personal Exposure Limits (determined by OSHA) and Threshold Limit Values (determined by the ACGIH)--these are the concentrations at which you are going to begin to have harmful effects. Fly ash HAS harmful components, the question is simply in what concentration. How much fly ash would a Roane County resident have to ingest before they hit their PEL/TLV figure? That's the question I'd want to ask the TVA.
So, paging down to Section 6, "Health Hazards," you can see what sorts of precautions the folks at SEFA Group advise for industrial fly ash handlers. I think, given the scope of the spill, we can assume everyone in the vicinity of the spill should consider themselves to be dealing with quantities on an industrial level. I'll quote:
So, breathing it in dust form is the thing they are really concerned about in this MSDS, keeping it out of your lungs. That will become more of a problem the longer this stuff hangs around on the Tennessee ground, drying up and becoming airborne.
Let's also consider the warning listed under Safe Use and Handling:
And lastly, look at what the MSDS advises for protection in the section on Control Procedures:
Sounds like the real concerns for Roane County residents is not merely, will their well water be drinkable? It's ultimately also clearly a question of what happens when all 5.4 million cubic yards of this stuff dries out? What happens when you spend your life drinking that water and breathing that dust-filled air on a daily basis?
I am not claiming to be an expert on environmental science, coal slurry composition, or waste cleanup practices. I am speaking to this issue simply as an industry professional trained to evaluate Material Safety Data Sheets. I maintain one of the largest MSDS record books that our OSHA inspector has ever seen, due to the huge range of materials we use on a regular basis in my field. My facility has passed every OSHA inspection conducted in the course of my tenure. That's it. I'm looking at this as if it were something i were about to use in my workplace, what i'd tell my assistants and students to consider in terms of personal protective equipment and handling procedures.
I err on the side of caution--there's no harm in say, wearing protective gloves you later realize you didn't need, or a particle mask where it turned out only a minimum of particulates became airborne.
If i lived in Roane County near this spill, based on the info in fly ash Material Safety Data Sheets, i'd start packing my stuff and figuring out how quickly i could move. :(
It's hard to conceive of the scale of this disaster. For comparison, the Exxon Valdez incident was 10.8 million gallons of crude oil spilled, so this is around 100 times as much material released into the Tennessee river system and deluging the countryside.
It is a departure from my topic to write about this in La Bricoleuse--ostensibly my topic being restricted to areas of professional costume craftwork for performance. On rare occasions though (such as this one), I do depart from the subject. I do have a personal concern for what's going on--I grew up in east Tennessee and my family has lived here for generations; I went to undergrad at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, literally just up the highway from the affected area, and had many classmates and friends from the Harriman/Roane County area. My grandparents live a couple counties over. This has happened to a place i call "home."
Really though, this *is* somewhat related to the general focus of La Bricoleuse, because what i want to use the disaster to explore is the idea of hazard information dissemination and evaluation of hazard info in terms of personal precaution and protection.
When Hurricane Katrina hit, i found the most compelling media coverage to be right here on LiveJournal, in the friends list of
katrinacane, an LJ account aggregate of New Orleans residents--evacuees blogging their relocation experience, city residents planning to ride out the storm, a security systems expert who stayed behind and updated almost hourly from his company's bunker. In a similar manner, i've been following the twitter hashtag #coalash for updates from diverse sources ranging from Roane County resident tweeters to Knoxville Sentinel reporters to national media representatives to the volunteers of the United Mountain Defense, a local non-profit who have been distributing bottled water and hazard information to affected residents.There's a lot of discussion in the blogosphere in comment threads appended to news articles about the questions about potential health hazards of coal slurry--a lot of heated opinions on both sides (dangerous vs. not dangerous), spin on both sides, a lot of "butt covering" as well. That's to be expected and i can see everyone's reasoning behind their positions. The TVA doesn't want to cause a panic among residents or look like even bigger bunglers than they already do; the residents though are already panicked from seeing their homes and forests swept away.
The TVA is telling a positive spin on the truth in saying that the bulk of the sludge "consists of inert material not harmful to the environment;" any dilute solution is composed of a small amount of harmful material and a large amount of harmless material. The TVA sees the glass as being mostly full of drinkable water OMG YAY! :D
The environmentalists are putting a negative spin on the truth by focusing on the truly harmful ingredients in coal slurry: heavy metals, silicates, and sometimes radioactive material. They see the glass as being contaminated with gross crap that will hurt you EW YUCK OMG VOM. :O~
I keep seeing arguments on blogs come down to people asking each other, "Would you drink a glass of it?" (Initial water tests by the public utility came back within mandated acceptable levels of toxicity.) The issue is not whether you'd drink a glass of it, if that would be a safe thing to do or something with an acceptable level of risk attached. The question in terms of water quality is whether you'd drink a glass of it today, then a slightly more concentrated glass of it tomorrow, then a slightly more concentrated glass of it the next day, and so on from here on out until all traces of the fly ash spill have been erased from the streams, rivers, forests, soil, and water table. I'm no environmental scientist but me, i wouldn't.
The real question that residents should be asking is not, "Is our water safe to drink?" though.
The foremost question is, "What are the risks attached to long-term exposure to fly ash?"
And luckily, that's an area in which i do have actual practical professional expertise, which is why i'm writing about it here, because it's something that costume crafts artisans address on a regular basis: what the risks are associated with a material or medium or chemical or solvent, and how to take adequate precautions when using it.
Fly ash is not just a waste byproduct of burning coal. Fly ash is also a commodity sold in quantity to the concrete industry as a composite part of cinderblock and concrete manufacture. That means that by law, fly ash manufacturers and distributors must provide a Material Safety Data Sheet to consumers on possible risks and hazards. I don't know if the TVA sells a quantity of their fly ash output to industry; if they do, residents could track down a copy of the TVA's fly ash MSDS on the particular slurry contained in the ruptured reservoir for the most accurate info. However, enough other companies do sell their fly ash and make their MSDS available on the web that a google search on "fly ash msds" turns up several examples. Appalachian coal is bituminous (as opposed to anthracitic), so any MSDS for fly ash from bituminous coal would give you a starting place on evaluating the hazards. Here's four from the first page of search results:
- First Materials Inc. Fly Ash MSDS (PDF)
- SEFA Group Bituminous Fly Ash MSDS (PDF)
- Boral Material Technologies Fly Ash MSDS (PDF)
- STI Ash/Sunbury Generation LLC Fly Ash MSDS (PDF)
On these kinds of MSDS hunts, i also pay attention to the revision dates--of these, the best one to look at with respect to the Roane County TVA coal ash spill is that SEFA Group Bituminous Fly Ash MSDS, which specifies bituminous coal as the source of the fly ash, and which has a revision date of June 2008.
I always tell my students that the point of MSDS evaluation is not to be alarmist or extremist; it is to make as informed a decision as possible, and where you've got to take a guess, to err on the side of caution.
Looking at that SEFA Group document, the first thing to inspect is Section 2, entitled "Product Composition and Major Constituents," which lists any hazardous materials contained in a substance. For fly ash from bituminous coal, they list several (silicates, metals) which have known Personal Exposure Limits (determined by OSHA) and Threshold Limit Values (determined by the ACGIH)--these are the concentrations at which you are going to begin to have harmful effects. Fly ash HAS harmful components, the question is simply in what concentration. How much fly ash would a Roane County resident have to ingest before they hit their PEL/TLV figure? That's the question I'd want to ask the TVA.
So, paging down to Section 6, "Health Hazards," you can see what sorts of precautions the folks at SEFA Group advise for industrial fly ash handlers. I think, given the scope of the spill, we can assume everyone in the vicinity of the spill should consider themselves to be dealing with quantities on an industrial level. I'll quote:
Exposure Routes: Inhalation, Skin Contact, Eye Contact
Acute Health Hazards: Possible irritation of eyes, skin & respiratory system.
Chronic Health Hazards: Prolonged or repeated exposure to excessive levels of crystalline silica may cause silicosis, a fibrosis of the lungs.
Signs & Symptoms of Exposure: Irritation of eyes, skin & mucous membranes of the respiratory system.
Note: Respirable crystalline silica has been classified by the International Agency for Research on Center (IARC) as a probable human carcinogen.
So, breathing it in dust form is the thing they are really concerned about in this MSDS, keeping it out of your lungs. That will become more of a problem the longer this stuff hangs around on the Tennessee ground, drying up and becoming airborne.
Let's also consider the warning listed under Safe Use and Handling:
Avoid conditions which result in dusting and in uncontrolled runoff of rainwater from storage areas. Avoid inhalation of dust. [Emphasis mine.]
And lastly, look at what the MSDS advises for protection in the section on Control Procedures:
Respiratory Protection: NIOSH-approved respirator if exposures approach TLV/PEL.
Protective Gloves: Work or chemical gloves should be used to reduce skin irritation of dust when workers must directly handle the material.
Eye Protection: Goggles or safety glasses should be worn. Eye station should be readily accessible.
Other Protective Equipment: Protective clothing should be worn as necessary for individuals with sensitive skin to prevent direct skin contact.
Work/Hygienic Practices: Wash hands and face after handling fly ash and before smoking or consuming food or beverages, apply cosmetics or using toilet facilities. Local exhaust systems should be employed in confined spaces.
Sounds like the real concerns for Roane County residents is not merely, will their well water be drinkable? It's ultimately also clearly a question of what happens when all 5.4 million cubic yards of this stuff dries out? What happens when you spend your life drinking that water and breathing that dust-filled air on a daily basis?
I am not claiming to be an expert on environmental science, coal slurry composition, or waste cleanup practices. I am speaking to this issue simply as an industry professional trained to evaluate Material Safety Data Sheets. I maintain one of the largest MSDS record books that our OSHA inspector has ever seen, due to the huge range of materials we use on a regular basis in my field. My facility has passed every OSHA inspection conducted in the course of my tenure. That's it. I'm looking at this as if it were something i were about to use in my workplace, what i'd tell my assistants and students to consider in terms of personal protective equipment and handling procedures.
I err on the side of caution--there's no harm in say, wearing protective gloves you later realize you didn't need, or a particle mask where it turned out only a minimum of particulates became airborne.
If i lived in Roane County near this spill, based on the info in fly ash Material Safety Data Sheets, i'd start packing my stuff and figuring out how quickly i could move. :(
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no subject
Date: 2008-12-26 08:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-27 06:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-28 03:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-01 10:30 pm (UTC)'because of the warm weather'. They sure must have a lot of extra capacity there. . .
On the other hand, a local paper reported that a coal train was stranded on a line approaching the plant, unable to go forward or reverse. That might be a truthful reason.
regard,
Jay
File A Complaint!
Date: 2008-12-26 08:57 pm (UTC)Also, google; EPA, Region 4, Tennessee Environmental Protection, TVI
Re: File A Complaint!
Date: 2009-09-11 12:52 am (UTC)Here is a picture to put in your heart and hope that gives energy to fight for the Mother...mercy!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingston_Fossil_Plant_coal_fly_ash_slurry_spill
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingston_Fossil_Plant_coal_fly_ash_slurry_spill#Legal_actions
More...from Wikipedia,
Plant and spill location
Original design of the ash disposal areaThe Kingston Fossil Plant is located on a peninsula formed by the confluence of the Emory River (to the north) and Clinch River (to the south and east), approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) upstream from the latter's mouth along the Tennessee River. Watts Bar Dam, located along the Tennessee 38 miles (61 km) downstream from the mouth of the Clinch, impounds a reservoir (Watts Bar Lake) that spans a 72-mile (116 km) stretch of the Tennessee (to Fort Loudoun Dam), the lower 23 miles (37 km) of the Clinch (to Melton Hill Dam), and the lower 12 miles (19 km) of the Emory. The plant, originally known as the Kingston Steam Plant, was built in the early 1950s primarily to provide electricity to atomic energy installations at nearby Oak Ridge.[44]
The plant's ash pond disposal area is located immediately north of the plant along the peninsula's Emory River shore. The ponds were originally created by diking off part of the lake at the Emory's confluence with Swan Pond Creek, which flows down from Harriman (just over the ridge to the northwest).[45] The disposal area consists of the main ash pond (where ash is initially dumped), which is flanked on the southeast by a stilling pond (where water from the main pond is placed to further separate it from the ash) and on the northwest by "dredge cells," where ash from the main pond is placed to further solidify. The dike breach occurred at the northwest corner of the dredge cell area, overlooking the Swan Pond Creek spillway.[46]
This Earth will die if we do not treat her better.
Living on Swan Pond Circle..... Harriman Tennessee
Date: 2008-12-28 04:56 am (UTC)Thanks for your blog. I appreciated finding it. I have called TVA several times about the Air Quality Testing and recieved only "it's not a problem at this time". I do understand this is a HUGE issue for residents and now the onslaught of workers that are here. I live within 2/10 of a mile of the large debris. I now have floating ash in our water (we are surrounded by water on 2 sides, within 50 feet on one side). Health Concerns related to Airborn Ash have been pushed aside. It is disheartening to see families trudge through this mess to get to thier homes and have seen onlookers walking thru just out of curiosity. I have made several posts to the local news regarding my concerns and the dangers of the Airborn ash. So far... nothing. I have called local and state goverment (oh... they are out for the holidays)
I am currently limiting our outside exposure, changing very expensive air filters in our heating unit & drinking bottled water. I wish I had somewhere else to go, but we can't afford the expense. Since we were not directly "hit" we will not receive any type of housing assistance.
Tell everyone to keep posting... and Thanks!
I just joined live journal, and hope to start posting the progress of this tragic event.
Re: Living on Swan Pond Circle..... Harriman Tennessee
Date: 2009-09-11 01:11 am (UTC)If that doesn't work, try the FBI public corruption hot line. You can Google your city, then FBI . gov, then Public Corruption. File a complaint. If you live in Portugal, you can file a report to the EPA about concerns over the affect on the biosphere. Soil and water travel, residents should not be trudging through that now. There is a lot of Federal Stimulus to fix that and citizens are encouraged to keep in contact with their government agencies to affirm that Stimulus ARRA grants are being used in accordance with thier granting.
Freedom of Information Act or FOIA is a request you can make for information regarding the status of yours and others complaints. Always watch the last part of the help wanted ads in public notices. It is usually buried so look for "Environmental Meetings, Permits, or Consent to Administrative Orders". Public meetings and time for comment are received.
The problem comes when Environmental Activists react too late. The time for public comment is 30 days or sometimes more with controversial topics. In TN, you have politicians who want to be elected or posted or nominated and if you and others will write simple but factual and to the point to the Tennessee Environmental Protection Agency, Jim Fyke is the Director. The Governor is Phil Bredesen,
The very latest:
http://www.state.tn.us/environment/kingston/pdf/comm_guid/factsheet062309.pdf
Don't give up, don't stop letting your voice be heard...
no subject
Date: 2008-12-30 10:11 pm (UTC)Fly ash is in the chinese wallboard also
Date: 2009-04-14 04:26 am (UTC)EPA Seeks Public Comment on Mountaintop Removal Mining!
Date: 2010-04-06 02:10 am (UTC)Lest we not forget, a group of young activists www.itsgettinghotinhere.org are taking public comments and helping people be heard on this practice.
If you care about an entire People (The Appalachian People), please let your voice be heard. It doesn't matter where you live. If you share planet earth, you can send in comments and attend webinar/meetings.
Thank you for all of the Good you do in our world. Thank you for every kind deed. Thank you for every wishful thought.
LLatimer - my blog has information links for different info from regulatory branches. http://snoqualmieragingfallsfarm.blogspot.com
http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/e77fdd4f5afd88a3852576b3005a604f/4145c96189a17239852576f8005867bd!OpenDocument
http://www.epa.gov/wetlands/guidance/mining.html