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The Environmental Protection Agency has found high levels of arsenic and heavy metals in two rivers in central Tennessee that are near the site of a spill that unleashed more than a billion gallons of coal waste.

The agency said it found "several heavy metals" in the water in levels that are slightly above safe drinking-water standards but "below concentrations" known to be harmful to humans.

"The one exception may be arsenic," the agency said in a letter to an affected community. "One sample of river water out of many taken indicated concentrations that are very high and further investigations are in progress."

However, arsenic was not detected in a water intake facility near Kingston, Tennessee, where the spill happened, said EPA spokeswoman Laura Niles.

The metals were found in the Emory and Clinch rivers, near the site of a major spill last week that unleashed enough sludge to fill 1,660 Olympic-size swimming pools.

The EPA's letter comes as the head of the largest public power company in the nation pledged to clean up the massive spill.

"This is not a time where TVA holds its head high," said Tom Kilgore, president and CEO of the Tennessee Valley Authority. "But we won't hang our head, either, because that won't get the job done. I'm here to tell you that we will clean it up, and we will clean it up right."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/12/29/tennes ... index.html

Sounds like the metal level aren't high enough to make it a Superfund project.

Erin Brockovich To Visit Coal Ash Spill Site
The Knoxville News Sentinel reports that Erin Brockovich, the famous environmental advocate and law expert, will be visiting Tennessee to investigate the massive coal ash sludge spill that happened on December 22:

"A lot of people don't feel confident about what they're being told," she said Wednesday from her California home. "We're going to share what we do know and what to anticipate. We'll bring along experts and answer some of their questions."

Brockovich, a 48-year-old mother of three, has worked as a television host and describes herself as a self-taught authority on environmental issues. She worked as a law clerk in the 1990s when she began looking into reports of health problems caused by contaminated groundwater in Hinkley, Calif.


Listen to Brockovich's TVA coal ash spill thoughts on WVLT-TV in Knoxville, Tenn. She says that the Tennessee Valley Authority's credibility "might not be the best."

Brockovich also blogged about the coal ash spill on her own site:

Coal fly ash. It sounds like someone has been burning fly poop or airborne coal. But seriously, it is akin to the creosote that coated those chimneys and chimneysweep boys of Charles Dickens ancient London.

Fly ash comes from chimneys, specifically the chimneys of power plants. The collection point determines exactly what kind of ash it is. Fly ash apparently contains silicon dioxide and calcium oxide as well as trace concentrations of heavy metals. In other words, coal ash is nasty stuff to have floating around in your river, air, and drinking water.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/0 ... 54646.html

Make sure you check out the slide show at the link...