Tennessee Coal Sludge Disaster Essay

Coal is the dirtiest of all fossil fuels. When burned, it produces emissions that contribute to global warming, create acid rain and pollute water. With all of the talk surrounding nuclear energy, hydropower and biofuels, you might be forgiven for thinking that grimy coal is finally on its way out. On the other hand, coal is no sooty remnant of the Industrial Revolution - it generates half of the electricity in the United States and will likely continue to do so as long as it's cheap and plentiful . Clean coal technology seeks to reduce harsh environmental effects by using multiple technologies to clean. Coal is a fossil fuel composed primarily of carbons and hydrocarbons. Its ingredients help make plastics, tar and fertilizers. A coal derivative, a solidified carbon called coke, melts iron ore and reduces it to create steel. But most coal - 92 percent of the U.S. supply - goes into power production .Electric companies and businesses with power plants burn coal to make the steam that turns turbines and generates electricity. When coal burns, it releases carbon dioxide and other emissions in flue gas, the billowing clouds you see pouring out of smoke stacks. Some clean coal technologies purify the coal before it burns. One type of coal preparation, coal washing, removes unwanted minerals by mixing crushed coal with a liquid and allowing the impurities to separate and settle. Other systems control the coal burn to minimize emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and

Fossil Fuels are extremely harmful to the environment, especially in the ways the fuel is obtained, such as mining or hydraulic fracturing. Coal, a commonly used fossil fuel, can be obtained by strip mining, mountaintop mining, or underground mining (“Coal Explained”). Strip mining has disastrous effects on the environment because of the destructive nature of the process, which removes all soil, rock, trees, and plants above coal deposits. The runoff from this pollutes streams and rivers nearby, which can harm aquatic life and disfigure the body of water,

toxic waste began. The toxic footprint of the Hanford site is enormous, in absolute and relative terms: 43

Coal Combustion Residuals, often referred to as coal ash, are currently considered exempt wastes under an amendment to RCRA, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. They are residues from the combustion of coal in power plants and captured by pollution control technologies, like scrubbers. Potential environmental concerns from coal ash pertain to pollution from impoundment and landfills leaching into ground water and structural failures of impoundments, like that which occurred at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s plant in Kingston, Tennessee. The need for national management criteria was emphasized by the December 2008 spill of CCRs from a surface impoundment near

Coal ash is known to contain a number of different toxic metals, the exact content dependent upon the coal it is formed from. Containing this potential pollution hazard is an expensive problem, as approximately 75% of all ash generated is stored in landfills. In these sites, rainwater can leach out toxic metals including mercury, arsenic, cadmium, chromium, molybdenum, lead and selenium. As over 500 million tons of ash are produced each year, there’s an increasing environmental health hazard to the surrounding water systems of these landfills. Pollution can spread to municipal water systems and potentially poison humans. As such, figuring out a better solution to deal with the unused coal ash is of significant importance. Current uses of coal ash primarily include the formation of concrete due the pozzolanic properties of coal

The Buffalo Creek flood of West Virginia is believed to be the most devastating coal relate disaster in West Virginia history. The flood occurred in the Buffalo Creek area of Logan County on February 26, 1972 when three dams broke and released 132 million gallons of water and coal waste known by miners as “gob,” and is a thick sludge-like material. The gob contains many toxic chemicals and pollutants such as mercury and arsenic that are left behind from the coal mining process. The wastewater would lie in settling ponds and dams until it could be properly disposed of. The water that was left over from processing coal would be disposed of in two different ways. Some of the water would be pumped from the dam back to the “tipple”, otherwise

Coal ash also contains selenium which is already needed in our body, but excess amounts can lead to impaired vision, paralysis, and even death. The ash contains a lot of lead, exposure to lead can cause numerous issues in your brain affecting your nervous system and can cause brain swelling. Arsenic which is found in the ash can be harmful, if ingested it can lead to nervous system damage and cardiovascular issues. If arsenic that is found in the ash is absorbed through the skin can cause skin cancer. Coal ash contain boron also can cause damage to the intestines and even death. The EPA is responsible for protecting the environment from these types of spills, but in the case of properly disposing the ash the EPA ruled that coal ash was classified as a non-hazardous material leaving it up to the companies to dispose of it as they want

Two wastes that resulted from this production were coal tar and purified waste. Coal tar was a formation of less volatile chemical compounds. Coal tar’s sole purpose was for roofing and road building material. Scientists taking coal tar as a starting point developed other uses. Manufactured gas plants were creating more coal than they could find buyers for and eventually formed an emulsion with water. The tar produced spills and leaks over decades of operation. Chemicals found in coal tar were anthracene, fluorene, napthalene, pyrene and many others (dec.ny.gov). Sulfur and cyanide compounds that were being removed through purifier beds consisting of lime or wood chips formed purifier waste. Reactions took place between the gas and purifier material corroding gas pipes, stoves and lighting fixtures. Purifier beds would eventually fill up with tar and become unusable. Having to dispose of the material, the waste had a strong odor and the wood chips would ignite if left uncovered. The purifier waste would either be shipped to landfills or fill low-lying areas on premises. The cyanide compound found in purifier waste contaminated groundwater away from the burial location. The water that became affected was highly acidic and caused harm to fish and

“EPA Vows to Speed Clean-up of Toxic Superfunds Sites Despite Funding Drops” by NPR’s Joe Wertz

Tens of business closed up, which directly affected a large number of households. The coal mining operations companies also left environmental contaminants in the environment. Pollutions from coal mining have a direct effect on water, land air. Some of the pollutants contaminate ground water, surface water and impact on other land-uses. Besides the slope failure and explosion, environmental impact from coal mining causes erosion; leachates production, which seeping into ground water, and dust pollution. Heavy metals compound like lead, cadmium and arsenic dominates coal mining sites (Bhuiyan, Parvez, Islam, & Dampare, 2010). These metals are toxic to plant and animal. Some absorb some of these dissolved metals and introduce them into the food circle. When rainwater mixes with coal waste, the runoffs becomes acidic, which reduce PH of surface waters. (Komitas, 2001) Population inhaling coal dust suffers black lung disease and other complication like lung cancer, and heart failure (Finkelman & Orem, 2002). Coal mining in uranium mines is another source of radioactive exposure. Another environmental impact from coal mined lands includes emission of greenhouse gasses. Future land redevelopment in grand Cache, must deal with this issues before development could take

Water contamination is the next major concern of environmental groups. The Environmental Protection Agency, the governmental regulatory agency created in 1970 to manage the enforcement of environmental policy, states its concerns in a letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 2009 (United). Specifically addressing mines in West Virginia and Kentucky, the EPA expressed serious concerns over water pollution from strip mining (“EPA”). The rupture of an ash dike at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston Fossil Plant in Roane County, TN on December 22, 2008 granted credibility to the EPA’s concerns. In an article published by in Environmental Health Perspectives, Rhitu Chatterjee comments on the poisonous substances contained in ash produced from processing coal, listing

The pit is highly contaminated with heavy metals and acids. The water in the Berkeley Pit has a very high concentration of heavy metals. As the water filled the pit the water picked up leftover copper, iron, arsenic, cadmium, and zinc. Because of all of the massive amounts of metal deposits in the water the pit’s water is red and lime-green in color. The persistence of the heavy metals in the pit water and surrounding areas will be hundreds of years before the concentration thins out. The pit’s critical water level is 5410 ft. Once the water reaches this level it will begin to contaminate surrounding ground water, and potentially spread down the Clark Fork River. This pit, filled with toxic, contaminated water, is an environmental hazard. The water in the Berkeley pit is a poison, as it killed a flock of migrating snow geese, which will be discussed below. MGMB says “A long-term

The basic problem with coal tar is that it contains exceedingly high levels of PAHs. These compounds are considered as likely to cause cancer in humans, can cause a variety of birth defects and have been proven to cause tumors and other abnormalities in fish and other wildlife subjected to PAHs in the water

Rubble from the blasted mountains, often containing toxic debris, is dumped into adjacent valleys to form "valley fills.” Thus, creating an immediate cause of a problem. He also points out that there have been reports of water contamination in towns surrounding mountaintop removal sites. Residents have been reporting not even being able to drink their own water. This creates underlying causes of a problem. According the article in the Washington Times by James E. Person Jr., the immediate causes of the problem is the destruction of the wilderness to make room for these surface mines. This destruction brings about water contamination, mountain soil erosion which could lead to future landslides, and slurry impoundments in the river that endanger the lives of everyone downstream. When it comes to underlying causes of the problem, Person points out that this pain and suffering will only spread to more communities if a stand is not made soon. He sarcastically states, “it is not necessary to believe the area can or should be returned to Edenic purity to believe that turning the Earth into a giant midden and an open sewer is a terrible thing, and taking a stand against the destruction of human life and community is a good thing.” Mark Tran, the writer from The Guardian, writes that the immediate cause of the problems in West Virginia is politics. Mark writes, “In the past three years alone, West Virginia 's division of environmental protection

With that being said here are some environmental impacts of coal you may not know about. The air pollutants cause acid rain, smog ,respiratory illnesses, cancers and toxins in the environment. Coal miners can get respiratory illnesses from the coal dust while mining. If an abandoned coal mine catches fire it puts tons of mercury into the atmosphere, this happens every year and is responsible for three percent of carbon dioxide emissions globally. The second largest contributor to