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" The billion-gallon sludge spill caused by a ruptured earthen dike near a Kingston, Tenn., coal plant last week was made mostly of fly ash--the by-product of coal combustion that goes up the chimney of a coal-fired power plant. After new regulations barred plants from just releasing all their ash into the atmosphere, plants must capture fly ash and store it. The Eastern Tennessee plant, like most, combines the ash with water and stores the resulting sludge in nearby lagoons. The problem came for the Eastern Tennessee plant when the dike gave way, spilling out sludge that covered about 300 acres, possibly the largest such spill in U.S. history. Coal fly ash is nasty stuff. According an Environmental Protection Agency report, coal plants produce 160 pounds of fly ash for every ton of coal that they burn. This ash contains traces of heavy metals such as arsenic and uranium, and other toxic chemicals, such as mercury. The mean mercury level, according to the EPA, is 0.33 parts per million, more than the other remnants of coal-burning--bottom ash or boiler slag. At 0.33 parts per million, a billion-gallon ash spill would contain 330 gal of mercury. However, because the plants mix the ash with water and make it into a sludgy paste before sending it to storage ponds, that number would be smaller.  Mercury exposure is especially dangerous for unborn children, who are susceptible to neurological damage if their mothers have a buildup of mercury in the bloodstream, most often caused by eating seafood with elevated mercury levels. Though these small amounts of mercury exposure are less dangerous for adults, continued exposure to mercury can lead to health problems such as chronic tremors and a variety of mood disorders. Besides the mercury, however, trace amounts of arsenic, uranium, nickel, cadmium and toxic chemicals makes this a nasty substance to have in the waterways--one that is difficult to test for and remove. Tennessee Valley Authority representatives said that early tests of nearby rivers showed elevated levels of lead (which in high doses can also lead to developmental disorders) and thallium (used in rat poisons and insecticides), but still within government regulations. Mercury barely showed up, according to the TVA.  RELATED STORIES * PLUS: Clean Coal Plant Could Power 150,000 Homes by 2015  * GREEN LIVING: U.N. Puts Clean Coal on the Back Burner  * EARLIER: PM Takes a Look Inside Modern Coal Mining   View of the TVA Kingston Fossil Plant fly-ash spill, appx. 1 mile from the retention pond. This view is from just off Swan Pond Road. The pile of ash in the photo is 20 to 25 ft high, and stretches for 2 miles or so along this inlet (the inlet empties into the Emory River). (Photograph by Brian Stansberry, published under a Creative Commons license.) "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a12777/4297384/>