State oversite of TVA coal ash spill lacks resources

[DogPoundPup]

Source: Nashville Is Talking

Today's daily update on TVA's website gives the following progress report on the effort to clear the toxic coal wastes from a 300 acre disaster zone near the Kingston Fossil Plant.

snip~
...the shocker: When I asked TDEC how many pieces of equipment they had for their role in overseeing the entire cleanup of this massive national disaster, the answer was one boat.

The coal industry has done an amazing job shifting the regulation of coal wastes away from the federal government and to the states. What the coal industry got in return were a handful of states whose environmental oversight is stripped of regulatory power and resources for holding polluting industries accountable to the people. The results should be immediately obvious to Tennesseans who enjoy our rivers and will become obvious to everyone else soon enough. Learn more about the role of state oversight from today's report on NPR.

Read more: http://www.nashvilleistalking.com/node/91356

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More from article...

Whoever decides they were elected to stand up for Tennessee's rivers, our farmers, our fishermen, our wildlife and our great state might see an opening to do so.

* The Tennessee Republican Party advises Republicans to avoid talking about the environmental disaster and instead defend our use of coal.
* The Republican controlled legislature would have a difficult time explaining why Tennessee doesn't need to protect our state from polluters with a national environmental disaster unfolding here.
* I haven't found a single conservative blog discussing this national environmental disaster.
* The Republican controlled state legislature would have a hard time explaining how banning gay adoption will keep mercury and arsenic from their baby's bottle.

Yet, as of this post, there is not a single proposal in the state legislature that seeks the accountability Tennesseans are demanding.

[peacebird]

1. good thing it was a CLEAN COAL spill...! my goodness, imagine the consequences if it weren't?

:sarcasm:

[quidam56]

2. They say the Bush Legacy will be...

how safe our patriotic leader kept U.S. since 9/11. Bush/Cheney and THE COAL INDUSTRY are homegrown TOXIC TERRORISTS. http://www.wisecountyissues.com Appalachia has been blown and blasted right into Third World America. Hannity's America sure isn't My America !

[psychmommy]

3. 1 boat, that is ridiculous.

we have countless superfund cleanup sites in nj that were de-funded and the clean up never completed. it's not just tennessee. i hope 2009 brings about a whole lot of environmental changes. that could be jobs created to clean up toxic sites. i am going to change.gov now, thanks.