Tennessee Valley Coal Swamp

TVA ash spill: Workers cleaning up, rebuilding infrastructure(kn)
TVA Coal Ash Spill in River near Harriman, Tennessee, Estimated at 500 Million Gallons Huge Environmental Disaster in Tennessee(ac)
The Tennessee Valley Authority, created and supported by the Federal Government for over 60 years (allowing it to thoroughly crush any private enterprise competition and draw in industry from other parts of the country because of its low electricity rates) has had a coal ash spill.

Around 1.7 MILLION CUBIC YARDS of spent coal ash, about 2/3 of the entire reservoir in question breached a levee system and has covered over 400 acres in a 4'-6' thick sludge river of, well, death. 15 homes were covered and at least 3 of those homes have already been declared unlivable. It has reached and dumped into the Emory River, and the TVA is hoping to be able to stop it from getting to the nearby clinch river with a temporary levee and a boom. (and we'll just pretend that none of the bad stuff could possibly proceed from the clinch to the rest of the upper Tennessee Drainage Basin. (The water supply for Chattanooga, and parts of alabama and kentucky))

This is the third time in 6 years this reservoir has released into the valley. Though, by far, this one has been the worst. The TVA has also had to replace a water main and re-build roads to some of those stranded in their homes. The Coast Guard, EPA, the State Department of Environment and Conservation, and I'm sure a whole host of other government agencies have been spending time and resources to deal with the aftermath.

Rest assured: The TVA has done a visual inspection of their other ash pond dikes.
Oh, and:"Coal ash contains mercury and dangerous heavy metals like lead and arsenic - materials found naturally in coal are concentrated in the ash."
and for perspective: this is 40 times bigger than the exxon valdeez spill. Yet the media is too busy covering shoplifting stories for the christmas season to really care...

Read the second story above for some great video links. And/or watch this one: Aerial footage: TVA storage pond breach in Harriman(kn) You really have to watch it to get an appreciation for just how bad this is.
(This guy has around 13 minutes of footage while flying over and around it...)(wbir)

THIS is whyipaytaxes.