The already strong case for federal inspections of coal ash impounds just got a lot stronger with the release of a $3 million study of the Dec. 22 dike break at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston, Tenn., Fossil Plant.
Engineer Bill Walton of AECOM USA Inc. said earthen dikes supporting a huge coal ash landfill at the Kingston plant were “on the verge of failure” long before they collapsed and sent tons of toxic muck into a river and lakeside community. TVA has launched a $1 billion cleanup of the site.
At the time of the mishap, federal law did not require inspection of coal ash storage areas which are at coal-fired electric plants throughout the U.S., including the Big Sandy plant near Louisa.
Since then, members of Congress has called for federal inspection of the storage areas. The 6,000 page AECOM USA recommends more frequent and through inspections of the storage, but it stops short of calling for federal oversight of coal ash storage.
Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas, whose House Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment has been holding hearings on the disaster, called the report “enlightening and disturbing.” She said it would help explain why the spill happened and help prevent them.
After a 2006 leak at the Kingston plant, TVA decided to install trench drains rather than do a $25 million conversion to dry storage or install a $5 million landfill liner. Why? Because it was less costly. TVA now is converting to dry storage of coal ash at the site.
Walton’s report says more thorough inspections of the coal ash impoundment at Kingston would have likely revealed that the dike was in danger of collapsing “at any minute.”
Walton’s report does not point the finger of blame for the disaster by overemphasizing what should have been done. Instead, it emphasizes what could — and must — be done to prevent a similar disaster at a northern location. Learning from your mistakes and taking steps to assure that they are not repeated is the best way to prevent future man-made disasters.
Editorials
Ready to fail — 06/28/09.
Report provides more evidence of need for federal inspections
- Editorials
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Charles Chattin
Before it merged with Ashland Community College to form Ashland Community and Technical College as a result of the 1997 Higher Education Reform Act, the Ashland Area Vocational-Technical School compiled an impressive record for teaching job skills to young adults and placing more than 85 percent in jobs for which they were trained.
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Try again
It is time for Kentucky Speaker of the House Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, and Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, to cease playing political games and redraw district lines that are compact and are based far more on population changes during the first decade of this century than on partisan politics.
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'Asset poor'
More than one in four Kentucky households are “asset poor,” meaning that they are living from paycheck to paycheck with little or no financial cushion to fall back on should they suddenly lose their jobs or have another emergency resulting in a temporary loss of or delcine in income.
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Safer mines
The head of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) says coal operators throughout the country are improving their operations and, as a result, mines are becoming safer. However, MSHA chief Joe Main said too many coal operators still “don’t get it” and are continuing to cut costs by ignoring safety. That’s why MSHA plans to continue targeting mines with a history of repeated violations for additional inspections.
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Not far enough
For the past three sessions of the Kentucky General Assembly, bills that would raise the minimum dropout age from 16 to 18 have been approved by the Kentucky House of Representatives by wide bipartisan margins only to die in the Senate without even a vote.
Now the Senate Education Committee has unanimously approved a dropout bill hailed as an alternative to the House bill, but it does not go nearly far enough. It is a halfway measure that would have only a limited effect on preventing teenagers from quitting high school before graduation and virtually assuring themselves of lives on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder.
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Not their job
The local government committee of the Kentucky House of Representatives has wisely killed a bill — dubbed “Cooper’s Law” — that would have allowed the family of the Lexington toddler with cerebral palsy to have a playhouse on their property despite a deed restriction that apparently prohibits such structures.
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Keeping FADE
Despite an increase in cost to the department, Carter County Sheriff Casey Brammell told the Carter County Fiscal Court that his department will continue to be active in the FIVCO Area Development Drug Enforcement (FADE) Task Force — at least for now.
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Needed changes
The soaring enrollment that Kentucky’s community and technical colleges have experienced in recent years could come to a sudden end — or at least be slowed — as about 5,500 students in the statewide system that includes Ashalnd Community and Technical College are expected to lose their financial aid under new rules being implemented by the federal government.
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Released early
While it is disappointing that 75 of the 952 prisoners granted early release in January have violated the terms of their releases, the good news is that none of the former inmates have been charged with new felonies. That’s an early, but positive, indication that the nonviolent felons released before their sentences were up have been carefully selected and are among those least likely to return to a life of crime.
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Obese children
Almost a decade after former Gov. Ernie Fletcher called childhood obesity an “epidemic” in Kentucky, a majority of Kentucky adults still think that there are too many overweight children in the state and they place the bulk of the blame squarely on the shoulders of their parents.
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Charles Chattin
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