Today is the 1st anniversary of the environmental disaster at the TVA Kingston coal-fired power plant in Tennessee. Since December 22, 2008, a procession of daily Norfolk Southern rail cars has been carrying the millions of tons of coal ash that spilled from a retaining pond and delivering it to a commercial landfill in Perry County Alabama.
This photo shows the coal as being loaded onto the rail cars in Tennessee. Once they arrive in Alabama, the coal ash is removed from the trains and carried by truck to the interior of the landfill where heavy equipment spreads it out.
Security at the landfill is very tight. Uniontown police guard the main road leading inside, although the landfill is outside the city limits.
As far as I know, nobody representing the landfill has given an on-the-record interview.
Also in the last year, the EPA is preparing to formulate regulations on coal ash, and is investigating charges that dumping like that in Perry County is environmental racism because it happens mostly in poor, black communities. A lawsuit has also been filed to stop the coal ash dumping.
[ADDENDUM:
Washington Post/AP story about the 1 year anniversary.]
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