The state health department has completed its health assessment of the TVA Kingston coal ash spill disaster site. Key findings according to the TDH:

Here are the URL and an HTML file or three to the TVA TDEC files
The posts are on line at:
(link...)
The TVA00000001 type numbers are page numbers. The file name is often the first page of a multi page file.
I had to make an index or table of content file in html.
To use the HTML files:
Download to someplace you will be able to find them, like your desktop.
In your browser, pulldown the "file" tab to "open"
Click on "browse". Find and double click on the name of the HTML file, or click on the file and "OK"
Click on "OK" or "OPEN" in the file open dialog box.
any problems call four one five nine 0 two nine six, six six
If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer 7, it will open a new window with the index, but the TVA .pdf files may be displayed in the original window. If this bothers you, try downloading IE8.
I got lazy and put the last two data releases 2009 Apr 10 and 2009 Apr 16 in separate HTML files.
There are some files on the TDEC site that aren't on the TVA site.
If you know exactly what you are looking for, please comment with your request.
Thanks
WC has my respect for staying on top off the fact pile on the ash pile. TVA seems to have stacked the data as carefully as they stacked the ash.
Sorry if this sounds stiff, I just got up.
Charlie

BLACK TIDE from GQ Magazine
I'd seen the community discuss bringing the gentleman from GQ to attempt to see the ash, but in all my searches, I had never seen the article…
(link...)

"Just days before Christmas last year, an environmental disaster one hundred times the size of the Exxon Valdez (yes, you read that right) unfolded on a riverbank in eastern Tennessee. A wave of poisonous sludge buried a town…along with the myth of clean coal "
By Sean Flynn; Photograph by Christopher LaMarca

Video and pictures of the Emory and Clinch rivers after the massive rain event on Monday, May 4 (link...)

Dear folks,

I hope that yall are well. Things are going good here. Just enjoying a little bit of American freedom. So I went to court in Kingston, TN this morning at 9 AM. It was an interesting experience. I met my public defender and learned that TVA had presented a motion to revoke my bond because I had asked a CTEH employee to help set up parallel air monitoring sometime in the future and that I had also set up an air monitor with a land owner's express permission on their property that had been purchased by TVA. This land owner was not allowed by TVA order to tell me that the property had been sold and so I had no way of knowing that it had been bought by TVA. After my court case today a TVA police officer informed UMD volunteers Tom and Bonnie Swinford that they were not allowed to visit this resident or do air monitoring on the property because TVA owned the property and the TVA police could decide who was allowed to enter the property. This resident is staying on this property for a few more months and had a pre- existing contract with UMD to do air monitoring and photograph the disaster site. This resident is very concerned about the quality of air coming from the disaster site near the property.

I was threatened with up to one year in jail for my work with the air monitoring program. Truthfully I love yall but it sorta freaked me out today to hear that I may spend a year in jail because I put up an air monitor.

TVA is very scared about the samples that we are taking with this air monitoring equipment and they are willing to threaten me and other UMD volunteers to keep this valuable field work from being done. We need your help. UMD volunteers have listened to your concerns about air and water quality, we have done the sampling, and we have been threatened with jail time because of our scientific monitoring.

So after speaking with my public defender and letting them know that I would not plead guilty to any of the charges the prosecutor came back with a deal. They would drop one of the charges and just give me a fine for two of them with a guilty plea. No deal!!!! I called for a pre-trial hearing. The prosecutor began to squirm and made some phone calls to the TVA so they could rally the arresting officers and the CTEH employee. Just before the pre-trial hearing began the prosecutor came back with another deal. All of the charges would be dismissed!!!! Sounds a bit better, but what is the catch.

Well for the next six months I cannot travel on the Clinch or Emory River from Interstate 40 to mile marker 4 on the Emory River. I cannot enter the 750 foot elevation (100 year flood plain) near these two rivers. I cannot interact with any TVA employees or any other company workers employed by TVA to work on the Coal Ash Disaster. The $3,000 bond will be held for the next six months until a follow up trial date of Sept 21, 2009 at which time I will have to pay court costs of nearly $600. If at any time I break any of these clauses I will be pulled back into court and all bets are off probably meaning jail time.

So what does this all mean? Well the future of your community's water and air monitoring program now rests with you, the community members. I can provide the training and skills but have now had a MAJOR dent put into the amount of access that I have to the disaster site and the area surrounding TVA's Kingston Steam Plant. If you want this air monitoring project to continue then I would please ask you to step up to the plate, get the training, and set up an air monitor on you or your neighbor's land.

Here is how you can help:

1) document your health issues/ go to the doctor or hospital, take the MSDS sheets

2) come to a Tennessee Coal Ash Survivors Meeting Tues 6PM rotating locations

3) get training to gather air/ water/ coal ash samples

4) give water monitoring people a boat ride on the river during the dredging to gather samples

5) contact UMD if you would like to have an air monitor set up on your property

6) contact your elected officials and ask for independent air monitoring

7) contact TDEC and CTEH and ask for parallel sampling with UMD's air monitors

TDEC- Air Resources

Tracy Carter Senior Director 615- 532- 0127

Air Pollution 615- 532- 0554

Call 1-888-891-TDEC (8332)
ask.tdec@tn.gov

CTEH

Phone (501) 801-8500
Email: support@cteh.com

Alright yall, please let’s find a way to work together and gather the much needed independent data that you have asked for. As much as I want to help your community I am not willing to spend a year in jail for the cause. You as community members have the power to install these monitors and the power to gather this information. Please feel empowered to do so.

Thank you, matt landon volunteer staff for UMD and dedicated volunteer for Roane County

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2009

CONTACT: Tim Lucas
(919) 613-8084
tdlucas@duke.edu

ANALYSIS SHOWS EXPOSURE TO ASH FROM TVA SPILL COULD HAVE 'SEVERE HEALTH
IMPLICATIONS'

Note to editors: Avner Vengosh can be reached at (919) 681-8050 or
vengosh@duke.edu. Photos of the research area can be viewed at
(link...)
and
(link...)
.

DURHAM, N.C. -- A report by Duke University scientists who analyzed
water and ash samples from last month's coal sludge spill in eastern
Tennessee concludes that "exposure to radium- and arsenic-containing
particulates in the ash could have severe health implications" in the
affected areas.

"Our radioactive measurements of solid ash samples from Tennessee
suggests the ash has radiation levels above those reported by the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for typical coal ash," said Avner
Vengosh, associate professor of earth and ocean sciences at Duke's
Nicholas School of the Environment. "Preventing the formation of
airborne particulate matter from the ash that was released to the
environment seems essential for reducing possible health impacts."

More than a billion gallons of sludge coal waste spilled from a holding
facility at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston coal-burning power
plant on Dec. 22. The ash-laden waste flooded more than 400 surrounding
acres and spilled into a tributary of the Emory River, which converges
with the Clinch River and flows into the Tennessee River, a major source
of drinking water for many communities in the region. The spill was so
large it partly dammed the tributary of the Emory River, turning it into
a standing pond.

Vengosh's team found that the combined content of radium-228 and
radium-226 - the two long-lived isotopes of radium - in the solid ash
samples they collected from the TVA spill measured about 8 picocuries
per gram. That's higher than the average 5-6 picocuries per gram
reported by the EPA in most bottom and fly ash samples. The curie is a
standard measure of the intensity of radioactivity.

Radium is a naturally occurring radioactive element that decays from
uranium and thorium elements in coal. When the coal is burned, it is
concentrated in the ash. The EPA classifies radium as a Group-A
carcinogenic material, which means exposure to it could cause cancer.

Water samples collected and analyzed by Vengosh and Duke graduate
student Laura Ruhl found high levels of arsenic, measuring 95 parts per
billion, in water from the dammed tributary where coal ash has
accumulated. Only low concentrations were found in the Emory and Clinch
rivers. The EPA has set the arsenic standard for safe public drinking
water at 10 parts per billion.

Arsenic is a toxic metal that can occur naturally in the environment or
as a by-product of some agricultural and industrial activities.
According to the EPA, the effects of long-term chronic exposure to
arsenic can include increased risk of certain types of cancer, as well
as skin damage and circulatory problems.

"The good news is, we detected only trace amounts of arsenic in waters
beyond the dammed tributary," Vengosh said. "The data suggests that in
less than three weeks since the spill, river flow has diluted the
arsenic content. The river is clean, but the water from areas like the
dammed tributary, where the coal ash has accumulated, still contains
high arsenic levels."

Vengosh is an internationally cited expert on the chemistry of
radioactive elements in surface and ground waters. He has conducted
extensive research on radon and radium contaminants in the ground waters
of western North Carolina and the Middle East.

He and Ruhl collected the water and solid ash samples at sites affected
by the TVA spill on Jan. 9. Duke research scientist Gary Dwyer analyzed
the water samples for trace metal content using inductively coupled
plasma mass spectrometry. Following preliminary analysis, the solid ash
samples were incubated and underwent more detailed analysis of their
radioactive content using gamma spectrometry.

Vengosh's team collected the samples from the TVA spill after being
contacted by United Mountain Defense, a nonprofit environmental group
based in Tennessee. The Duke researchers received no funding from the
group or any other external party. All funding was provided by the
Nicholas School, Vengosh said, "to maintain total impartiality in our
analysis."

"The TVA spill is one of the largest events of its kind in U.S. history.
It raises questions concerning the safety of storing coal ash and the
potential effects of coal ash on environmental and human health,"
Vengosh said. "We hope our analysis will help provide some answers."

unitedmountaindefense.org

(link...)

Chris Irwin
865 257-4029