By BILL POOVEY (AP) CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — The Tennessee Valley Authority will permanently store onsite more than 2 million cubic yards of coal ash from a massive spill as part of the utility’s second phase of clean up. At $270 million, the onsite storage will consist of 25-foot-tall heap with no liner system beside […]
By BEN CUBBY ENVIRONMENT EDITORApril 27, 2010 DOZENS of cliffs have crumbled or collapsed, Aboriginal rock art has been destroyed and metre-wide cracks opened in the earth as a result of coalmining in the Gardens of Stone wilderness area near Lithgow, an independent report has found. The damage, inflicted over three decades by five coal […]
By Ken Ward Jr., Staff writerApril 21, 2010 CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginians who live near streams polluted by coal mining are more likely to die of cancer, according to a first-of-its kind study published by researchers at West Virginia University and Virginia Tech. The study provides the first peer-reviewed look at the relationship between […]
By BEN CUBBY, ENVIRONMENT EDITORApril 20, 2010 THE NSW government has tightened the pollution licence of a coal-fired power plant near Lithgow that is releasing toxic metals into a river that feeds Sydney’s drinking water supply. Delta Electricity, the owner of Wallerawang power plant, must now monitor heavy metals and pollutants such as arsenic flowing […]
By Renee Schoof | McClatchy Newspapers UNIONTOWN, Ala. — When the mound of wet coal ash began to rise in the landfill across the road from her pretty yellow house with the peonies and roses in the front yard, Ruby Holmes felt overpowered by a horrible smell. A few doors down, Mary Williams, a retired […]
By Tom Whipple Wednesday, April 14 2010 11:56 We all need to pause for a minute and consider the possible implications of the droughts that are engulfing China. One of these is in the north — Inner Mongolia, and the second more serious one covers most of southwestern China. If the weather patterns revert to […]
A coal carrier which ran aground and leaked about three tons of oil on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef completely pulverised parts of a shoal and caused damage so severe it could take marine life 20 years to recover, the reef’s chief scientist said today. Initial assessments by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority […]
By KYM AGIUSApril 13, 2010 – 9:35AM Maritime authorities have pulled off an incredibly complex salvage operation without spilling any more oil into Great Barrier Reef waters. Nine days after the coal carrier Shen Neng 1 ran aground on Douglas Shoal off Rockhampton it’s been refloated, and is now anchored in safe waters. Maritime Safety […]
The cost of constructing a new coal-fired power plant has increased by 50% in the last year alone. Appalachian coal production is declining, coal prices are rising, and we’re importing coal from Indonesia. Now Dominion is promoting a plan to re-regulate electricity markets that would put all the risks onto Virginia’s rate payers. … Virginia […]
Caption by Rebecca Lindsey Below the densely forested slopes of southern West Virginia’s Appalachian Mountains is a layer cake of thin coal seams. To uncover this coal profitably, mining companies engineer large—sometimes very large—surface mines. This pair of images shows the growth of one of the largest surface mines in West Virginia during the past […]
