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The ever-innovative Tennessee Valley Authority
has quickened the nation's awareness of the need to improve the management and disposal of the massive quantities of ash waste produced by coal-burning power plants. TVA, for many years, has promoted innovation in the energy industry theough the use of demonstration programs. The Kingston Steam Plant ash spill, it turns out, was not the unplanned, unanticipated environmental catastrophe portrayed in the media. No Siree!

The savvy satraps of TVA's power program have long been aware of the potential for bursting levees and sudden releases of massive amounts of polluted ash from impoundments associated with coal-burning plants. But would government and industry give ear to recommendations for alternative means of ash disposal that would very significantly increase operating costs? Probably not. The mills of the gods grind slowly, and sometimes grind to a dead stop. "What we need is a DEMONSTRATION PROJECT," said Aaron Anthracite, the manager TVA's Fossil Innovation Group (FIG). "An ash dam failure will wake up the utility industry, the citizens/taxpayers and the federal and state environmental agencies! Sure, it could cost a bundle to clean up the mess, but what the hey--the ratepayers can cough up a few more bucks each; the shock value of such a DEMONSTRATION will be worth the cost."

Thus was born yet another TVA innovation--the catastrophic demonstration! And who can say it didn't work? The U.S. EPA is writing new regulations to govern ash disposal. Other utilities are no doubt grooming and tutoring their lobbyists to resist the anticipated rules. The eyes and the ears of the public are following this now-newsworthy issue, having seen the aerial shots of the massive pollution-oozing piles of ash knocking houses off their foundations and silting up acres and acres of river bottom. Thus, coal ash storage, about as dull a subject as you could imagine just a year or so ago, is now a hot topic and federal regulators are moving determinedly to get control over this noxious pollutant and prevent a cascade of castrophes like the TVA DEMONSTRATION CATASTROPHE at the Kingston Steam Plant and ash hole!

http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/ad...06a097b!OpenDocument
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