Massive Coal Sludge Spill Spreading in Tennessee

About 40 miles west of Knoxville, Tennessee, millions of gallons of ashy sludge have broken through a dike at a coal-fired power plant, flooding homes, burying roads, and threatening rivers and drinking water. Tom Kilgore is the president of the Tennessee Valley Authority, which owns the power plant: "I fully suspect that the amount of rain we've had in the last eight to 10 days, plus the freezing weather might have had something to do with this."
The holding pond contained about 70 acres of fly ash – that's the residue left over from burning coal. It often has elevated levels of toxic metals. And according to the EPA, the spill has released about 525 million gallons of the sludge – that's nearly 50 times the size of the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

Anne Paine is covering the spill for the Tennessean:

Again, that's Anne Paine, environmental reporter for the Tennessean. The spill comes as the Bush administration is considering last-minute regulations that would make it easier to dispose of coal ash in old mines—something that environmental groups are asking incoming President Barack Obama to reverse. Lisa Graves-Marcucci is a community advocate with the Jefferson Action Group in Pennsylvania—her community was buried by a similar spill in 2005. Lisa Graves-Marcucci, thanks for joining me.

Lisa Graves-Marcucci is a community advocate with the Jefferson Action Group in Pennsylvania.

Click here for the full newscast for Tuesday, December 23, 2008