By Ken Ward Jr., Staff writerMarch 15, 2010 CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Water quality downstream from surface coal-mining operations in West Virginia and Kentucky greatly exceeds recommended toxicity limits, according to previously unreleased sampling data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. EPA scientists found toxicity levels as high as 50 times the federal guidelines in water […]
By Renee Schoof | McClatchy Newspapers WASHINGTON — Many of America’s coal-fired power plants lack widely available pollution controls for the highly toxic metal mercury, and mercury emissions recently increased at more than half of the country’s 50 largest mercury-emitting power plants, according to a report Wednesday. The nonpartisan Environmental Integrity Project reported that five […]
By Scott BarkerPosted March 14, 2010 at midnight Federal regulators say it’s technologically impossible to remove all the coal ash from the Emory River and an undetermined amount will remain after the cleanup of the Kingston ash spill is complete. According to a memorandum written by Leo Francendese, who oversees the emergency cleanup operation for […]
Last Updated: Monday, March 8, 2010 | 3:03 PM ET CBC News Developed countries are “outsourcing” more than a third of their carbon emissions associated with products and services to other countries, researchers say. A study of trade data found that some countries in Western Europe have more than half of their total carbon dioxide […]
By BILL POOVEY Associated Press WriterMarch 5, 2010, 8:34PM CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — More than a year after a Tennessee coal ash spill created one of the worst environmental disasters of its kind in U.S. history, the problem is seeping into several other states. It began Dec. 22, 2008, when a retaining pond burst at a […]
1984 1988 www.mongabay.comMarch 02, 2010 Eating a mountain for coal New images released by NASA reveal the conversion of mountains and forests in southern West Virginia to a giant surface mine. The time-lapse shots from 1984 to 2009 show the process of mountaintop removal in Boone County, West Virginia. The images show forests being […]
The disastrous coal ash spill that occurred a year ago at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston power plant in eastern Tennessee dumped a whopping 2.66 million pounds of 10 toxic pollutants into the nearby Emory and Clinch rivers — more than all the surface-water discharges from all U.S. power plants in 2007. That’s one of […]
By BEN CUBBYFebruary 18, 2010 EIGHT swamps inside a conservation area which provide habitat for endangered native animals are likely to be lost if BHP Billiton is allowed to go ahead with plans to develop giant coalmines on Sydney’s south-western outskirts. The company has conceded that the swamps – natural filters that keep the Georges […]
By MICHAEL RUBINKAMAssociated Press Writer Standing before the wreckage of his bulldozed home, John Lokitis Jr. felt sick to his stomach, certain that a terrible mistake had been made. He’d fought for years to stay in the house. It was one of the few left standing in the moonscape of Centralia, a once-proud coal town […]
In the early morning hours of December 22, 2008, the earthen wall of a containment pond at Tennessee’s Kingston Fossil Plant gave way. The breach released 1.3 million cubic meters (1.7 million cubic yards) of fly ash—a coal-combustion waste product captured and stored in wet form. As fly ash dries, it is typically moved to […]
