Tennessee Coal Disaster Threatens Endangered Species

December 26, 2008

On December 22, a forty-acre man-made pond containing millions of gallons of toxic coal ash collapsed in Tennessee, causing a disaster that environmentalists believe could be 30 times larger in scope than the Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989. That in itself was one of the world's largest oil spills, so the devastation of this recent event may not be fully realized for many months to come. Greenpeace is already calling for a criminal investigation.

One of the worst hit areas was Tennessee's Emory River, which is very close to the source of the waste— a coal-fired Kingston power plant. Dead fish immediately began washing ashore, as documented in the below.

The coal ash spill may be one more nail in the coffin for species already hurt by human activities in the area. Due to known mercury contamination, The Department of Environment and Conservation in Tennessee has issued past precautionary fish consumption advisories for all known fish at Emory River. This river and surrounding regions are home to countless fish, including:

striped bass
black bass
brook trout
multiple catfish
spotted gar
river carpsucker
Northern pike
Cherokee bass
orange-spotted sunfish
white and black crappie
green sunfish
warmouth
redbreast
flier
bluegill
and many more.

Of particular concern now are two already endangered colorful species within the ecosystem affected by the spill: the turquoise shiner and the purple bean mussel.

The turquoise shiner, also called the spotfin chub (Erimonax monachus), was once widespread in waters throughout five states, but now is restricted to just six very small populations. River impoundment, deforestation and pollution from agricultural practices had already been documented as threats to the glimmering fish. Population counts at the river are now unknown.

(Credit: The Virtual Aquarium; VA Fish and Wildlife Service)

The purple bean mussel (Villosa perpurpurea) has suffered tremendously at the hands of humans in past years. In 1998, 156 of the small mussels died as a result of a Clinch River chemical spill. This was the largest kill ever of an endangered species since the Endangered Species Act came into being. Purple bean mussels, which get their name from a purple coloration located on the inside of their shells, are critical members of their ecosystems, living in close contact with tiny fish known as darters and sculpin that spend most of their time on stream and river bottoms. The current population status of purple bean mussels at Emory River also remains unknown.

(Credit: VA Department of Game and Inland Fisheries)
The image shows a male purple bean mussel, a female and 6-month-old juveniles.

The extent of the possible damage to this once pristine corridor of the American South is almost too immense to contemplate. We will likely be hearing about the impacts related to this disaster for years to come.

Comments

[Daleesa Cole]

This is such a sad trajedy all due to human negligence.

[Ann]

That corridor has a long history of poisoning the water. I remember the dead fish floating belly up in the river in the mid-fifties when I lived in Harriman. My father worked in the paper mill, not a model industry.

[Jennifer Viegas]

Ann, I completely agree with you. My relatives near the area said almost the exact same thing to me yesterday. This latest severe event is going to be hard to ignore, though.

[Eric]

Trajedy is spelled with a 'G'. Tragedy. Yes...very good.

[isms]

more disasters!.....this highlights what the bible has indicated all along: mankind can NOT rule itself, let alone the earth. I am waiting for God to step in and eliminate the greedy and evil people that misuse and decimate our planet; I hope that day comes soon. I've seen enough. Haven't you?

[Gabriel]

Eric.

God just rang. He said to tell you that he's kinda tied up right now. Yeah I know. It's the same old excuse! Anyway He asked if you could do Him a favor. Can you? Please? I'm sure you can. After all it is The Big Cahoona handing out the orders!

He thinks your comment might get some backlash. So he just wants you to put a stop to these type of reactions once and for all. So can you just prove his existence for us? Because God knows a lot of people are going to read your comment and immediately dismiss it. They'll think you're an idiot and that you're the type of person who asks for God's assistance when you can't take responsibility for your own life.

Take it from me Eric. We know the score. And moreover He knows that if you really deserved some help. He'd come right down to Earth this minute and help you out himself.

Anyway if you could do this for Him He'd really appreciate it. Thanks!

Gotta go. Jimmy Hendrix is tuning up again!

[Ann S.]

That was a rather confusing way to inform Eric that there is no God.

The prayers are never answered, because there is no one hearing them. Stop believing in Santa, folks.

We are it. We help ourselves. And we better get going.

[Beanz]

This debate about God is just as pointless as your lives are without Him. Enough said.

[clifford]

He exists, folks.

[Pastafarian]

The Flying Spaghetti Monster would never allow all those innocent fishes and what not to be poisoned to death. Thus it was just a natural disaster, He was probably busy drinking it up with some pirate buddies while all this went down.
FSM is real, everything else is an ancient bedtime story.

[Lee]

Not to worry, It will soon be "covered up" just like what happened in Midway in Greene County Tennessee.

[Alejandro Hernandez]

I believe an investigation should be conducted, and anyone that has shown negligence to the issue of the structural condition of the man made lake should be hung on a stage in the middle of the drained toxic lake.

[Alejandro Hernandez]

OHHHHHHH man, I use to live in Tuscumbia, Al. I use to go diving, fishing, and swimming in the Tenn. River. I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO upset that this happened. I planned on buying a house right on the lake when I was done with college, so that my kids could enjoy the lake like I did when I was a kid. I am a chemistry major and I know how dangerous chemicals are. This is truly a sad day in history. I will defiantly test out the water myself with some analytical teachers I know from Harvard and Princeton before I buy a house on what I thought was one of the most beautiful rivers with so much history in the south.

[HE is real and alive]

For everyone saying HE is not real, open the BIBLE and read the last book and then look around you. All of this is written in Rev. HE is real and watching. We are the cause of all of this war, destruction and "accidents." If we quit polluting the earth and tearing it down and turn from our destructive ways then MAYBE we can turn it around or at least hault the extinction of EVERY species of animal and plant on earth. Nothing else. It's that simple. We need to pray and trust in GOD and hope that it's not too late.

[Steven Davis]

I am a geologist and have been for almost 20 years(registered professionally in several states). I am also an active profressional commercial airline pilot. Among the Bachelor's degrees I hold, one is a B.S. in Geology from Colorado State University (May, 1991) with specializations in both Ore Deposit Exploration and Environmental Geology/Hydrogeology and Hazardous Waste Mitigation and Remediation. My father has also been a geologist for almost half a century, and I have learned a great deal from his scientific expertise.
For over half a decade, I worked as an Environmental Staff Geologist and Environmental Project Manager/ Hydrogeologist on a wide variety of Environmental cleanups and even several RCRA (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act) Remedial Facility Investigations (RFI's). These will be better known to most readers as "SuperFund Sites." And I have worked on some of the most intensely polluted SuperFund Sites in the nation. In this capacity, I did everything from drilling and sampling contaminated soil and collecting contaminated water samples to synthesizing the tens of millions of data entries on dozens of sites into interpretive analyses, reports and remediation strategies to the U.S. EPA and a whole laundry list of other regulatory and/or government agencies and client companies. I even helped implement dozens of these remediation strategies in the field on actual HazMat sites.
I only mention the above facts to establish that I am an accredited, educated, accomplished and knowledgeable scientist who is well-versed in the field of Environmental Science. I am not simply a layperson who is responding emotionally to this Tennessee coal sludge incident. I am not (nor have I ever been) in the employ of the coal companies or any oil company. Nor am I in any way tied personally or professionally to the organizations involved in this sludge spill. (I live hundreds of miles away in Colorado, and I work for an airline.)
Having said all that, let me get to the point: Relax, everyone, Please!! This coal sludge spill is not even close to a minor environmental disaster, much less a major one. This was only a tiny 40-acre sludge pond, containing a few million gallons of coal sludge. Coal sludge is NOT TOXIC. I repeat, Coal sludge is NOT TOXIC!!!! Never has been; Never will be. Period. The coverage of this triflingly minor non-event has been embarrassing to me as a professional scientist. I am embarrassed to live in a country with a public that is so ignorant that it can be convinced that harmless substances are toxic. I am embarrassed and angered by our irresponsible media which will incessantly try to perpetuate such a fearmongering myth just to sell sensational news, without checking the facts. I am angered that there seem to be no journalistic ethics left in the U.S. What ever happened to interviewing a few real geologists, hydrologists, chemists and environmental scientists? In the mass media regarding this event, I have only seen interviews with ignorant layperson non-scientist local residents and equally ignorant agenda-driven environmental activists who make absurdly inaccurate statements which I can only conclude are deliberately misleading and agenda-driven. I had hoped that I could count on Discovery Channel's journalists to be better, but I couldn't have been more disappointed.
The statements in this blog article are simply preposterous. "...an environmental disaster too immense to contemplate..." "...30 times larger in scope than the Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989..." "...Contless numbers of fish decimated..." Please, spare me this ridiculous factually inaccurate fearmongering hyperbole. There is a word for this type of statement and this type of journalism; It's simply called lying. This is not science, it is emotionally driven, fearmongering sensationalism, and it is inexcusable.
Discovery Channel and all its subsidiaries should limit themselves to real factual science reporting, and nothing else. I am embarrassed for all of you. More importantly, I am profoundly fearful of the effect you are wreaking on an otherwise scientifically illiterate public, who depends upon you to report ONLY FACTS accurately without bias or agendas. (For example, If I wasn't scientifically educated, as I am, I might have believed all of the "facts" you presented in this article, which weren't really facts at all. I would have been dangerously misinformed.)
This was a small pond which failed and discharged dirty coal sludge over an area of probably no more than a few hundred acres, and then sent a surge of (natural) coal sludge and (natural) mud and (natural) water into a (natural) river system. Any hydrological surge event like this will always kill fish, even if it is just clean water, or rain water flooding. It does not eliminate any species--it is far too small an event to do this. Attributing those fish deaths to any of the infinitessimal trace elements which may or may not be in that parcel of coal sludge is dishonest and irresponsible. Fish most often die from mechanical causes in these types of events (they get beaten to death, or they ingest simply to much plain old mud, which clogs their gill systems, resulting in simple respiratory failure).
This tiny event is only tragic for the landowners in the immediate area, who have suffered undeniable real property damage. But we can relax a little--This is the USA, not some third-world country. The damage will be quickly rectified through compensation and remediation by the pond-owner/mining company, based on regulations and good business practices which have been in existence for over fifty years and everything will be cleaned up. This would even be true if this had been a toxic substance spill, but it isn't even a toxic substance spill, so why all the fearmongering?!?? I suspect it has something to do with the growing (grossly uninformed) anti-coal movement afoot in this country presently, and an all-too-complicit mass media...
Coal provides over 50% of our electricity in the U.S., and many people I meet seem blissfully unaware of this crucial fact. They are devoutly anti-coal, but they want the lights and the laptops to turn right on whenever they flip the switches...frightening. I hope Discovery Channel News can do a better job with future stories and accurate, calm, cool-headed scientific reportage. The public depends on you doing a better job than this. Only facts, Please!
Thank you, --Steve Davis

[irene]

I remember a Star Trek Generation episode where Picard and his crew had to relocate a human-colonized planet to make room for a blobby sort of species that acquired this outpost planet in territorial negotiations. The humans refused to leave their colonies. The blobs told Picard to "REMOVE THE INFESTATION" or else they would do it (by killing them all).
Picard had to rescue these people to keep them from getting annihilated.
My point is this: the very existence of humans in their current mode as colonizers, developers, exploiters, etc, have made permanent marks and changes on earth to an unprecedented degree. No longer do we wander from one area to the next in small family groups, as the ancients did; hunting, farming small plots for sustenance, taking only what was needed.
Now humans take extra to impress, wearing or building for status (look up Nimrod) or class distinction, collecting themselves into ethnic groups and setting out to cripple or destroy their 'enemies' for land rights, water rights, oil rights, trade rights.....you get the idea.
In doing so, humans have damaged the earth to satisfy ever-increasing demands: to possess a novelty item or be the biggest and baddest kid on the block. Trade and greed.
We are all part of that human earth-chomping machine.
Even sitting at the computer and reading this contributes.
We have infested the earth, like termites!

It's the 21st century, and there is still rampant slavery and servitude (how do you feel about working for minimum wage part time at Walmart?) war, famine, shortages, inequal housing and work opportunities, exploitation of resources to 'benefit' mankind, so long as shareholders make a profit.
Sure, there are apologists and alarmists for all sides. Still, the fact remains: there is no turning back.
We have reached the frontiers, we have encircled the earth, there is NOWHERE TO RUN anymore. No more pristine spots, not in the highest mountains, not even in the vast ocean depths.
I think most of us realize that we sped past the point of no return years ago.
Back to my Picard illustration: I am thinking that only drastic and immediate action will save the earth and what is left of it. Do you think the current world leaders can unite and do something besides spew rhetoric, promises and hand-wringing while they secretly fill the pockets of their business buddies? I don't think so.

[Robert Walker]

Steve Davis is probably entirely correct.

Nevertheless, here in Arkansas a new coal plant has been approved in Southwest Arkansas after Texas citizens rejected 11 new coal plants.

Arkansas accepted a plant which will degrade our air quality without a lot of new jobs to produce electricity which will be sent to Texas.

Arkansans may not understand they were taken advantage of because of a weak ADEQ. But they fish. They can understand fish kills.

We invaded Iraq for the wrong reasons. Maybe we can be more in favor of nuclear power plants which do not produce carbon dioxide because of minor fish kills.

[Tess]

Hey Steve, since you live in Colorada and all, I am sure you know first hand what a beautiful area this used to be. And, since the coal ash is so harmless, no doubt you would not mind your livestock drinking from the river, or for your dogs and children who are used to living on the water and swimming in the river to continue to do that? That is okay too, right? And, what about the EPA report that found high levels of arsenic in the water? That okay with you?

What about breathing the ash when it drys out? After all it is coating the property for several miles from the breach. Not to mention that it has clogged up the Emory River entirely at several points.

I bet some of the residents would love to sell their riverfront property to an educated fellow like yourself. We ignorant mountain people need to have folks like you move in and inform us about things, cause gosh darn, we tend to panic so easily.

[cud]

Irene, I think you have the wrong idea of why we are here.

Humanity is the only species that can concevably get earth life up out into space.

Think of the number of spiecies out there that die to reproduce; those species that don't sacrifice themselves still spend a great deal of their time/energy on reproduction.

Why should we expect the earth as a whole to be any different?!

If we kill the earth but terraform and colonize mars, venus, and a few worlds orbiting nearby stars, wouldn't that be "worth it".

I think the earth knew the risks when it allowed us to evolve, it is all just part of the gamble every living thing makes.

Even if we fail in our mission, the Earth will have plenty of time to try again a few times before the sun burns out.

[Deborah]

I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

Deborah

http://termlifeinsurance2.com

[Jennifer Viegas]

Thank you, Deborah. Glad you found us.-Jen

[Hornetsquad]

I, too, recently stumbled across your blog and was impressed by the information and postings. Thanks!

--------

Fred Smilek is the acting president of the Society to Save Endangered Species. It was founded two years ago by Fred Smilek along with his two best friends Charles and Jonathan. The Society to Save Endangered Species has blossomed from a minute organization with three members to one with more than ten members. Since its inception the organization has been able to raise nearly $25,000 in funds.

It was Fred Smilek’s love and passion for rare and nearly extinct species that caused him to form this wonderful organization in 2006. Additional content about the history of wildlife conservation can be found here. If you have any questions regarding the Society to Save Endangered Species, Fred Smilek, or how you can help insure that these rare species are around for a long time to come have a look at Fred Smilek’s home page which can be found here.

http://www.fredjsmilek.com

[Jennifer Viegas]

I'll check out the Society to Save Endangered Species, per your post. Thanks for making the connection.

[R C Miller]

Wow what a wierd and crazy blog. I will keep the faith and pray that my God will make cleaning up the mess humans have made of his garden part of his plan. Until God starts to talk to me again and let me know the real truth I will rely on reporting by journalists to inform me of events and their consequences. The disturbing and contradictory statement by a seemingly well credentialed person refuting the statement by this article, and the lack of comment by the article author makes you wonder who to believe. I hope the statment by the pilot is accurate and that this article way overstated the consequence of the spill. It seems like the pilot guy was trying to be sincere and correct the truly scary article! 30 times more damage than the Valdez???? That was so horrible and long term in its effects and damage, how could something 30 times more horrible be such a non-news item. You would have thought that something like that would have every network and journalist in the world there to document the effects. Thank you Mr Pilot for making me more confused and discouraged about believing the news, and the government. But mainly thank you for straightening out the facts and putting the spill in perspective. The headline of 30 times worse than the valdez was very very scary. Not that it isnt bad enough for the folks there in the area. I live in Washington state close to Mt St Helens and the ash from the volcano was a huge mess and the cleanup horrendous. Good luck to you people cleaning up the mess.

[Luciano Mallamaci]

HYDROGEOLOGICAL RISK: the CESIC Research Center workink on methodologies and tools which reduce risks

In recent years, floodplain inundation is increasingly a major task for engineers and managers, because it represents one of the most important environmental problems. Natural
phemomena are the expression of land evolution processes: because of their intensity, they often represent a serious threat for human activities, both social and economic.

Methodologies acknowledging the uncertainty inherent in flood risk have gained favours, in

order to manage its occurrence and mitigate its consequences. In Italy, flood risk

represents one of the most serious threats, because of the extreme climatic and

geomorphological variability. Flood events, like the Arno river flood in 1966,the Po river

flood in 1994 and the Tevere river flood in 2008, involve wide portions of the interested

areas and can be disastrous in terms of damages to human activities and property. Mountain

areas and small river basins have been characterized by elevate sediment transport, that

causes also flash floods.
Uncertain predictions of flood inundation extent have been made possible thanks to advances

in numerical modelling techniques and increases in computer power. The engineering

activities in the field of Hydraulic Protection of Territory aim at quantifying

uncertainties in water levels, velocities and propagation time evaluation in order to

obtain reliable estimation of risk.
The results of the research activities cariied out at CESIC are available in the "Hydraulic Protection of

Territory", in which you may also watch a video concerning the numerical simulation of

the behaviour of the TOCE River.
Luciano Mallamaci
http://www.cesic.unical.it

Watch the Video "Toce river simulation"
http://www.cesic.unical.it/content/view/87/124/lang,it/#toce