Jan 7, 2009
Dear folks,
(please repost to any and all news sources)
Check out www.unitedmountaindefense.org
Check out http://dirtycoaltva.blogspot.com/
Check out http://www.roaneviews.com/
Check out Swan Pond Resident: http://lifeonswanpond.livejournal.com/
Today was spent documenting flooding that occurred during last night. We witnessed one farm with flooding so bad that a barn had been overtaken and the house was being threatened by the flood as well. United Mountain Defense volunteers witnessed and documented what we thought were illegal discharges of contaminated water from a slue between Lake Shore Drive and Swan Pond Circle Dr directly into the Emory River. We saw a huge diesel pump moving water through a 12 inch pipe. This pipe was leaking water along the way thereby spreading the coal ash contamination. It was pretty crazy to see this discharge into the river. I interviewed a few TWRA employees about whether they knew about the discharge and if they knew if it was illegal and they would not comment on the situation. I understand that this is a disaster situation and there was the risk of flood waters rising but is this the best practice for the health and safety of all residents downstream?
We witnessed TVA contractors in amphibious machinery digging a trench to channel the backed up water directly into the Emory River as well. The channel was nearly complete and this tainted water would soon be flowing into the drinking water source for millions of downstream residents.
We met another resident, a Vietnam veteran, who had been ordered by his doctor to evacuate his home due to the coal ash disaster.
Just before the TVA claims office closed a United Mountain Defense volunteer went to file a claim about his health concerns from delivering bottled water and distributing free information to these coal impacted residents for two and half weeks now. He like many residents of Swan Pond had a scratchy throat, almost a sore throat. He also had a few headaches over the past week. He requested that TVA pay for heavy metal exposure testing for all of the residents who felt impacted by the coal ash disaster. The TVA representative was very polite and typed in the volunteer’s info but could not tell him when TVA would contact him or what the next steps would be to relieve the situation. The funniest thing happened after we left the building as one TVA employee ran around the office with his hand up to his eye like a telescope mimicking the camera that was taping the whole interaction at the TVA claims office. Obviously the stress of their job is to much for these TVA employees to handle and I am glad to see that they can find humor in our work.
I just learned that these folks were employed by an independent contractor and are not TVA employees. I also learned that due to lack of public participation that they may be shutting down the office after less than a week of being open. Thanks, TVA!
If you are a concerned resident of the Swan Pond community please contact us at 865 689 2778.
If you can make a donation of money or other resources please send a check to United Mountain Defense P.O. Box 20363 Knoxville, TN 37920 or use our PayPal account at www.unitedmountaindefense.org
Till then, Matt Landon full time volunteer staff person United Mountain Defense
Jan 6, 2009
Dear folks,
(please repost to any and all news sources)
Check out www.unitedmountaindefense.org
Check out http://dirtycoaltva.blogspot.com/
Check out http://www.roaneviews.com/
Check out Swan Pond Resident: http://lifeonswanpond.livejournal.com/
Mr. Graves called early to inform me about the dump trucks hauling fly ash off of the disaster site along Swan Pond Rd. He stated that the operators had not been washing the ash off of the trucks before leaving the disaster site. He stated that he knew for a fact that this was not up to regulations for hauling material out of an area that contained hazardous waste, such as a land fill. He also stated that the trucks were traveling uncovered. I instructed him to document the trucks through photographs or video and to call TDEC, TDOT, and the THP and file an official complaint. We got off the phone and began the day’s work.
We worked to consolidate a media caravan which consisted of a reporter from the Chattanooga Times Free Press, national NPR, and two independent press members.
We set up interviews with local coal impacted residents and gathered some coal ash samples. We spoke with residents who voiced concerns for their health and that of their families. We spoke with one lady who had to evacuate her grandson following a doctor’s orders. She couldn’t return to her home and TVA had not secured housing for her past Jan 9th.
Later in the evening United Mountain Defense volunteers attended both the TVA Town Hall Meeting at the Harriman United Methodist Church and the 2nd emergency meeting of the Kingston City Council.
The TVA Town Hall meeting was fairly interesting. Howie Rose of the Roane County Emergency Management Agency spoke first about the latest updates on the disaster situation. He answered questions from the audience. When asked about the ash coming off the tires of the dump trucks he stated that the trucks would begin to be decontaminated from here on out. When a follow up question asked what the trucks were contaminated with he stated, fly ash. When asked if fly ash was a contaminant he stated that it was just mud.
Next up was Tom Kilgore, TVA’s CEO. Kilgore faced an edgy audience as these coal impacted residents moved into week three of the spill. Their nerves were becoming frayed as TVA had broken promise upon promise in helping to deal with the clean up in a responsible way. A joke was made about Kilgore being a lot better off if he had retired last year. He laughed. Kilgore seemed to back peddle on the promise of “making like it was before” by stating that TVA was considering leveling and sculpting the coal ash and capping it off with soil and grass. He suggested that the area would be a pleasant park with a few streams flowing through it. What he didn’t explain was that this park would continue to pollute the Emory River and the surrounding ground water supply for hundreds of years if left in place.
There were a few audience members who asked some very good questions that were to hard for Kilgore to answer. Kilgore seemed to dance around many of the questions and stated that he didn’t know or refused to answer many others. When an audience member asked if TVA would pay for community members to be tested for heavy metal exposure, Kilgore stated that any resident would need to go to the TVA claims office and TVA would decided if they had been impacted. When Kilgore was asked how TVA would define "impacted" he stated that it would be the people living closest to the spill site. Kilgore quickly passed the microphone to someone else as the crowd began to bear down on him. If I didn’t know any better I would say that this community meeting would have broken out into a boxing match if there had not been Harriman police on the scene. I guess that it also helped that it was held in a church. So Kilgore was pretty smart in that he passed all questions of water quality to the EPA representatives.
After the meeting I had a chance to speak with a representative of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation about when they would have any public hearings on the discharges that TVA was making into the Emory River. I was told that a few of the permits had been issued under special emergency permitting powers. I was told that there had never been an “Emergency Aquatic Resources Alteration Permit” issued in TN at least that this TDEC official could remember. When I asked if the citizens could get a public hearing after a permit was issued he looked at me with a puzzled face. Of course I was being serious. So I was also questioned about why United Mountain Defense had moved out of the mountains to begin working in this community. I explained that since we had had so much success working with coal mining communities over the past 5 years and that we had been training over that span of time for such an event that it made sense for us to travel 30 minutes to lend a hand.
The success that United Mountain Defense has been able to have in helping facilitate the development of local leadership is directly attributed to our training and on the ground experience. We did not come in like cowboys and cowgirls with guns non violently blazing. We came to Harriman with a very humble approach and a very simple message. We want to test all of this coal ash and water and we want to learn from the locals so that we can help educate and protect the health of the community and the environment. Simple message and simple organizing.
If you are a resident of the Swan Pond community please contact us at 865 689 2778.
If you can make a donation of money or other resources please send a check to United Mountain Defense P.O. Box 20363 Knoxville, TN 37920 or use our PayPal account at www.unitedmountaindefense.org
Till then, Matt Landon full time volunteer staff person United Mountain Defense
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment