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It Was the Worst Industrial Disaster In US History, and We Learned Nothing

Posted by Soulskill on from the par-for-the-course dept.

superboj writes "Forget Deepwater Horizon or Three Mile Island: The biggest industrial disaster in American history actually happened in 2008, when more than a billion gallons of coal sludge ran through the small town of Kingston, Tennessee. This story details how, five years later, nothing has been done to stop it happening again, thanks to energy industry lobbying, federal inaction, and secrecy imposed on Congress. 'It estimated that 140,000 pounds of arsenic had spilled into the Emory River, as well as huge quantities of mercury, aluminum and selenium. In fact, the single spill in Kingston released more chromium, lead, manganese, and nickel into the environment than the entire U.S. power industry spilled in 2007. ... Kingston, though, is by far the worst coal ash disaster that the industry has ever seen: 5.4 million cubic yards of coal ash, containing at least 10 known toxins, were spilled. In fact, the event ... was even bigger than the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in April 2010, which spewed approximately 1 million cubic yards of oil into the Gulf of Mexico."

5 of 290 comments (clear)

  1. Where have I heard about spills like this before? by OzPeter · · Score: 5, Informative

    Oh yeah .. this year .. huge coal-ash spill at a retired Duke Energy coal plant

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  2. Don't forget Duke Energy by smooth+wombat · · Score: 5, Informative

    Their recent coal ash spill coated 70 MILES of the Dan River, but thanks to them buying off the legislature and a Governor who happened to have worked for Duke Energy, they may escape any liability for the cleanup, leaving it up to the taxpayers to foot the bill.

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  3. Nope by the+eric+conspiracy · · Score: 5, Informative

    The worst industrial disaster in US history occurred in 1947 when a series of explosions killed 581 people, including all but one member of the Texas City fire department.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T...

    The initial blast was also one of the largest non-nuclear explosion in US history.

  4. Re:Not even close to the worst. by RabidReindeer · · Score: 5, Informative

    We don't dig up fossil fuels out of the ground and eat them.

    What do you think saccharin is made of?

  5. Johnstown? by Stargoat · · Score: 5, Informative

    What about Johnstown, when a dam built by a railroad company collapsed, killing well over 2000 people. Yes, at the time the dam belonged to a club run by industrialists as a hunting and fishing preserve, but it was still an industrial accident.

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