Hazardous coal waste sites kept secret by Dept. of Homeland Security

[theHandpuppet]

Link
http://athensnews.com/news/regional-news/28485-epa-names-three-area-communities-at-risk-from-nearby-coal-waste-impoundments

EPA names three area communities at risk from nearby coal waste impoundment
Written by Mike Ludwig
Monday, 06 July 2009 09:19
The Athens News, Athens, Ohio

A federal agency has identified three southeastern Ohio communities that could suffer fatal consequences, if nearby coal waste storage ponds were to fail like an impoundment in Tennessee. That impoundment, in Kingston, Tenn., burst and spilled 1.1 billion gallons of toxic sludge across more than 300 acres of land last December.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) made public last week a list of 44 coal waste storage ponds, dams and impoundments that have a “high hazard potential” due to their proximity to 26 communities in 10 states across the country. Six facilities near three southeastern Ohio municipalities – Brilliant, Cheshire and Waterford – made the list.

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All seven facilities are owned and operated by energy giant American Electric Power (AEP). AEP operates a total of 11 of the 44 sites on the EPA’s list.

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The Department of Homeland Security had previously ordered the EPA to keep the list of the 44 “high hazard potential” coal waste sites secret to prevent potential terrorist attacks, according to the environmental group The Sierra Club.

Yeah, right... I'm sure that's why they kept this a secret!!! :grr:

More of the article at the link above.

[Buzz Clik]

1. Why is that such an impossible scenario?

People at DU have been complaining for months about these sites stating that they are highly hazardous and quite unstable. If a heavy rainstorm is all that's needed to bath people in a "toxic soup", then a few sticks of dynamite would go a long way as well. We want that advertised before changes are made?

[theHandpuppet]

2. Oh sure... they were going to do the right thing, anyway.

Please forgive the sarcasm.

Do you really think any changes would have been made if the Sierra Club hadn't forced the issue into the light? Do you believe that people who live in the vicinity of these sites should be notified and informed of the danger?

More from the aticle...
"The EPA released the list after The Sierra Club and other groups filed Freedom of Information Act requests June 18. Lisa Evans, an attorney for Earthjustice, one of the groups that requested the list, said people who live near high hazard coal waste dumps should “know there is a substantial threat nearby."

[Buzz Clik]

3. No, I don't think that the EPA would have done anything.

The article and your comments were focusing on Homeland Security.

[theHandpuppet]

5. Yes, I'm suspicious of this particular interest of theirs

There are probably hundreds if not thousands of soft targets around the country that could be susceptible to a terrorist with access to explosives. Why the secrecy with regard to coal waste sites in Appalachia? Do you really think they are at the top of any terrorists' hit list? Hell, I just got back from SE Kentucky where people have been absolutely devastated by spring floods and you don't see that destruction or their misery on the 6 o'clock news. The poverty, the poisoning of the water, the strip mining... it goes on and on and few give a gnat's ass.

So forgive me if I'm suspicious of the Dept of Homeland Security's concern about coal waste sites as targets for terrorism. There's terrorism being waged against the people of Appalachia every damned day, and a lot of that by politicans (both Repuke and Dem) who are lining their pockets with money from Big Coal.

[Buzz Clik]

6. As you well know, it is impossible to argue against a conspiracy theory.

We'll call it a draw.

[theHandpuppet]

7. Yeah, I'm just one of those whacko conspiracy theorists

From the Charlotte (NC) Observer
Dangerous fly ash: Too much secrecy, too little regulation
Posted: Sunday, Jul. 05, 2009

From Donna Lisenby, Appalachian Voices Upper Watauga Riverkeeper:

Well, it's about time.

After months of delays, the US Environmental Protection Agency finally released a list of high hazard fly ash dams on June 29. And it turns out that almost a third of the sites, twelve total, are located in North Carolina—more than any other state.

While I commend the EPA for finally making public this list of particularly dangerous coal fly ash impoundments, this is certainly not the first time the government has attempted to keep embarrassing environmental facts out of public view.

Public safety cannot be protected under a cloak of secrecy. The government's failure to release a list of 44 high-risk fly ash dams was, until Monday, a dereliction of duty to citizens – especially North Carolina citizens, thousands of whom live downriver from twelve of the highest risk fly ash dams in the nation.

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Senator Barbara Boxer, a US senator from California, fought the Army Corps of Engineer's attempt to keep the top 44 a secret. “We are pursuing whether the handling of these sites is consistent with the handling of other similar facilities, because of the critical importance of the public's right to know about threats in their communities,” she said in a press conference June 12. “Coal combustion waste is subject to very limited regulation – in fact, there are stronger protections for household garbage than for coal ash across the country.”

More at link: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/story/817543.html

[Buzz Clik]

8. You're not reading what I write.

You win, okay?

[valerief]

4. Terrorism, the catchall excuse. Hell, if Bush/Cheney/Rummy/etal wanted

another terrorist attack, they would have planned it.