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EnergyMan, who are you trying to kid?

WaterDrinker @ 3:08 PM PST, Jan 7, 2009

Get a grip! Coal ash is NOT a hazardous waste. Coal ash has some heavy metals in it, but they are trapped in the ash itself which can't leach into the environment. Kingston is a 50-year old coal fired plant with 1976 stack and a wet cleaning process. This plant is hardly state of the art for coal technology. BTW - they DON'T burn mountain top coal, almost all of their coal comes from Wyoming and Colorado. Enviros are lying to promote an anti-coal agenda. United Mountain Defense on its blog urges environmental groups to exploit this accident "as a means to an end".

EnergyMan @ 8:05 AM PST, Jan 7, 2009

The environment is getting so much worse, with polluting the air because of cars, ships, and trains. Also dumping into the ocean leaving fish to get poisoned by the chemicals. There is so much pollution, causing global warming and such. I am glad people are finally recognizing the fact that we're polluting our earth and need to stop. We can ALL help. No matter the way u help, riding a bike instead of the car, or using a powerplant to power a factory, you're still helping. The air before used to seem so much cleaner. I'm glad we can help in some way so let's all do it !! -Delaney

Delaney @ 6:28 PM PST, Jan 6, 2009

I am not sure what explosions have to do with 'clean' It is about the coal. Arsenic in the water etc. 100 acres of this waste piled up. All that stuff going into the soil and thus water. Also I imagine beiong picked up by the wind. As to the livelyhood of the coal workers. They will have to train for a new one as many of the rest of us have had to do when our jobs ended or went overseas. We learn a new trade. We may not like it but, sometimes it is necessary. We can't keep doing something dangerous and foolish because someone has chosen that as a career. The pollution of our enviroment is killing us.

Faith Graichen @ 12:54 PM PST, Jan 6, 2009

(continuation of previous post.) Obviously these people need jobs, but they are working on that themselves, promoting the area for tourism, and attracting other jobs that do not ruin their health and their homeland. A good source for information about local work to stop coal is www.ilovemountains.org.

Bonnie Yelverton @ 12:32 PM PST, Jan 6, 2009

Coal used to provide dirty dangerous and underpaid jobs for a large part of the population in West Virginia, Kentucky, Southern Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee. However, with the arrival of newer mining methods (mountaintop removal) the number of actual jobs has been decimated, since most work is done using enormous earthmovers, not the individual work of minors. Furthermore, the new jobs are not unionized. Mine-owners close old unionized mines to fire all the union workers, and sometimes reopen them with non-union workers.

Bonnie Yelverton @ 12:32 PM PST, Jan 6, 2009

This isn't about coal but dam safety. Rail on about whatever you'd like, but the issue here wasn't coal. Every winter there are dozens of homes destroyed by natural gas explosions, but it is somehow hailed as a clean fuel?

Willy P @ 10:35 AM PST, Jan 6, 2009

As someone who lived for years in the coal fields, I know the coal and power companies have a shameful history of exploiting both its workers and the environment. Nevertheless, the coal industry is vital to the economy of large parts of Appalachia. I agree with regulating coal more heavily and weaning away from its use, but thought must be taken for the people exploited by this industry for over and century and how they will earn a livelihood when it is no longer coal.

KY Boy @ 7:46 AM PST, Jan 6, 2009

This is a great article. I hope people wake up and see that there is no such thing as clean coal.

No Clean Coal @ 7:21 AM PST, Jan 6, 2009

This should be a great example that there is no such thing as "Clean coal." This whole issue is being handled as best as can be by TVA who is doing everything in it's power to keep the media from finding out the real truth about what environmentally unfriendly items are in the coal sludge residue. This are will be affected by this for decades.

Normbc9 @ 2:57 AM PST, Jan 6, 2009