TVA: $40M for ash-spill area's image, economy (AP/OakRidger.com)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Duncan Mansfield
Associated Press
Posted Sep 15, 2009 @ 09:00 AM

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KINGSTON, Tenn. — The Tennessee Valley Authority will provide $40 million to help restore the image and economy of a Tennessee community that suffered a massive coal ash spill from a TVA power plant, officials announced Monday.

Officials said the payment is more about the way the community is perceived than about environmental damage.

"This is all about economic development," TVA top environmental executive Anda Ray said. "It is not about any kind of settlement issue at all. It is about looking forward to a future (when) ... people will look at Roane County and say, 'I want to come here. I want to retire here. I want to raise my family here.”'

Some wonder if $40 million will be enough to offset the impact of 5.4 million cubic yards of toxin-laden coal ash spilling Dec. 22, 2008, into the rivers of a community that relies on attracting Rust Belt and Florida retirees to its lakeside homes.
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Roane County and TVA officials announced the award Monday from the steps of the county courthouse. The TVA payment to the community is in addition to cleanup costs estimated to total $1 billion.
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more: http://www.oakridger.com/localnews/x402525187/TVA-40M-for-ash-spill-areas-image-economy




Does "clean coal" have an ash disposal problem? Think about it -- of course it does!

[Dogmudgeon]

1. At least it isn't Nuclear waste!

Coal ash is bad enough. Just imagine the outcry if all that http://www.ornl.gov/info/ornlreview/rev26-34/text/colmain.html">coal ash turned out to be radioactive!

--d!

[NecklyTyler]

2. I can't help but wonder what would have been the out come if TVA invested $40 million to prevent it

Would TVA have been better off if they had spent the $40 million up front to address the problem of the coal waste rather than afterwords to clean it up?

Or better yet, what would have been the outcome of TVA spending $40 million on energy conservation to offset the need to burn so much coal generating electricity?