Wade Payne/Greenpeace/AP (J Miles Cary/Knoxville news Sentinel/AP)
Tennessee spill revives coal ash controversy
A dike break released more than 5.4 million cubic yards of toxic sludge and put rivers downstream at risk.
By Mark Guarino | Contributor of The Christian Science Monitor/ December 31, 2008 edition
Chicago
Each summer, Rick Cantrell liked to pull up catfish off the dock behind his sister’s house on Clinch River, a seasonal ritual that often lasts until the early hours of the morning.
That ended the Monday before Christmas when a retaining wall broke at a Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) coal-fired power plant, releasing into the wild 5.4 million cubic yards of toxic sludge. In one day, the sludge destroyed several homes, the property values of the immediate region, and a way of life.
“There’s no water anymore. There’s no dock there anymore. It’s all gone,” said Mr. Cantrell.
Residents in this East Tennessee mountain valley of intersecting waterways and lush vistas are still adjusting to the realization that life may never be the same following what some say could be the largest environmental disaster in US history.
Occurring within weeks of a new administration taking office in Washington, the disaster has brought attention to the regulation of the storage and disposal of waste coal. Environmentalists hope it will lead to a reexamination of coal as clean energy.
Photographs show hundreds of acres of land caked in what looks like thick, porous mud but is actually water-soaked coal ash, the byproduct of coal combustion. The TVA claimed about 400 acres were covered in the sludge, said the TVA. According to the EPA, enough coal ash was released to cover more than 3,000 acres with sludge one foot deep. [Editor’s note: The original paragraph misstated the area covered by the sludge.]
“[The waste] turned one of the most beautiful places in this country into a giant slag heap,” Mr. Irwin said.
The Kingston Fossil Plant at Harriman, located 40 miles west of Knoxville, is now surrounded by emergency crews, clean-up contractors, environmental groups, and homeowners, working to determine what caused the break and what harmful chemicals may have infected the water and, potentially, the air.
So far, “very high” traces of arsenic, lead, and thallium have been found in the Emory River a mile and a half downstream from the plant, said Laura Niles, spokesperson for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The toxins, which are known to cause birth defects and nervous and reproductive disorders, pose significant risk since the Emory River feeds into the Clinch River and the Tennessee River.
Residents are being cautioned against drinking tap or well water although Ms. Niles said the toxins had not yet been found near the water treatment plant near Kingston. John Moulton, spokesperson for the TVA, said the company is building an underwater rock wall at the base of the Emory River to catch sediment.
The bulk of the coal ash “is inert,” he said, adding that if higher than normal levels of metal were found in the water, it would be filtered out by the treatment plant.
As sampling continues, the disaster has renewed the debate over the efficiency of coal power and the EPA’s role in regulating storage and distribution of its waste.
At least half of all electrical power in the US is generated by coal-fired power plants, located mostly in the Southeast. In 2007, electric utilities and independent power producers consumed about 1 billion tons of coal, representing 93 percent of all coal produced in the US that year.
The high consumption results in about 125 million tons of waste, which is traditionally cooled and stored in landfills.
Critics say the EPA failed to create national standards for waste storage due to opposition from utility companies and the coal industry. With responsibility handed off to state agencies, standards vary widely, resulting in the phenomenon of “importing pollution” from a highly regulated state to one with lower standards, according to Carrie La Seur, president of Plains Justice, an environmental law center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
“It’s really been a federal failure to regulate this waste stream that has resulted in this patchwork,” said Ms. La Seur. “You get … a ‘race to the bottom.’ Every state has the perverse incentive to create the loosest regulation to attract whatever businesses are available.”
Because the EPA was reluctant to classify coal ash as hazardous during the Clinton administration, companies are not required to store coal ash in lined landfills. The Kingston facility stores its waste in unlined ponds with just a retaining wall separating it from the Emory River.
TVA’s Mr. Moulton said the company is reconsidering how coal ash is stored and disposed at the Kingston plant.
Due to the sheer volume of waste produced, the coal industry has been advocating recycling the material into backfill and building materials such as cement, bricks, or wallboard.
About 60 percent of the approximately 600 coal plants in the US are designed to recycle coal waste, unlike older plants like Kingston, says David Goss, executive director of the American Coal Ash Association. But only about 45 percent of coal ash gets reused.
“It’s not the norm yet,” said Mr. Goss, adding that that is likely to change as utility companies realize the revenue potential of marketing their waste for byproducts. However, it’s not clear if coal ash can be effectively recycled without leaching toxins into groundwater or the air.
( More stories )
Comments
2. V-man | 12.31.08
One would think that with a lot of coal mines no longer producing the obvious choice would be to return the ash to the abandoned mines. sealed back in the depths of the earth where it came from instead of piling it up where it has no business being.
Anyone else think this would be a fairly decent way to get rid of it??
3. aurum79 | 12.31.08
Speaking as an environmental scientist of 30 years, this was a preventable disaster. The effect is comparable to an on land oil spill. The material will inevitably be spread far an wide by uninformed cleanup efforts.
We inhale particulates containing metals like mercury, now widespread throughout the environment, due to coal burning. Now we get to enjoy lead and other toxics in our drinking water. An unmentioned issue is polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are sometimes carcinogenic combustion products. We need to rethink our energy economy and start treating our environment as something we live in rather than a toilet.
4. gerald cheney | 12.31.08
I did not see a mention of FEMA in the article, is it participating in the clean up?
5. Hayley Boyd | 12.31.08
I believe this article has an error: every other news article I have seen regarding the spill in Tennessee has stated that 300, not 3,000, acres were affected.
6. Rod | 12.31.08
Just about all industries in the USA have few if any laws to control how their waste by products are handled.Thanks to both parties being lobbied for years.The steel industry,whats left of it,has mountains of blast furnace ash on the banks of rivers and lakes that have never been tested for whats in it.And its not even contained or in lined dumps.
7. DAVE UHL | 12.31.08
This toxic coal waste is routinely added to concrete. Thus making the cement enviornment in which we and our food livestock live, well let’s admit it,, toxic.
8. Tim | 12.31.08
V*man, I am not highly informed, but I would imagine that would pose its own risks. Like it being closer to the water table and completely unmonitored.
9. dave | 12.31.08
teach your children to avoid touching concrete surfaces, as they are made of recycled toxic coal ash. and breathing … from the dusty surfaces… recycled coal ash…
10. P_Soul | 12.31.08
V-man,
I agree that your suggestion seems the best way of putting this material away. Unfortunately, there are two problems I see: 1)the possibility of the same toxins leaching into the environment unless the old mines are properly lined, and 2)much of the coal mined today is done by strip mining where entire mountains are removed leaving no shaft to fill. Still, if strip mining were outlawed and the used up mines were lined, your suggestion has some merit.
11. gene | 12.31.08
captainkona Due to the great Liberal bloggers “Joke”
Hope you get your story right make a right turn! It was
Mr.George you know our President,
The accident that unleashed a billion-gallon outpouring from a Tennessee Valley Authority power plant on Dec. 22 may revive efforts in Washington to tighten rules on so-called fly ash that’s laden with heavy metals, and other waste from coal- fired generators. The proposals stalled during the eight years of President George W. Bush’s administration.
12. Bill in NC | 12.31.08
Yet we chose not to build nuclear plants over the last 20 years, instead opting for essentially uncontrolled coal-fired plants for baseload generation.
Nuclear plant waste can be dry casked on site (no need for Yucca mountain)
13. Mike | 12.31.08
This is another angle in the perfect storm of energy, culture, and population…
http://truthalert.net/The%20Perfect%20Storm%20of%20Energy%20Culture%20and%20Population.htm
The poster “aurum79″ is entirely right, writing, “We need to rethink our energy economy and start treating our environment as something we live in rather than a toilet.”
14. John | 12.31.08
Great catch, Haley. 300 acres is quite a bit less than 3,000. Hello, journalists? Is there anybody out there? Christian Science Monitor editors and fact checkers: Please wake up.
15. William E. Marks | 12.31.08
I have been researching water and the world’s pollution for 40 years. With today’s technologies, and the huge purse of TVA - this spill was preventable.
The statement by an official that there was no water pollution threat was misleading. Watch what happens to the ground water and nearby rivers as rain and wind go to work. It is heartening to see the civilian volunteers who are carting hundreds of gallons of drinking water to those impacted. As well, it is volunteers who are videotaping the scene, taking groundwater and surface water samples, and dead fish to independent laboratories for testing.
In my mind - this is what America is all about - people who care about the living world - people who help each other in time of crisis.
16. Cliff | 12.31.08
First, let’s get some accurate reporting. The sludge is NOT covering 3,000 acres - but only a bit over 300. Even the United Mountain Defense folks only claim 400 acres.
But, 300 acres is still a large area, and that does not really include the river system. Still, water sample testing by 3 independent agencies has not turned up levels considered hazardous at the water intakes for local domestic supplies not far from the spill. I am not sure where the “very high” report is from or as compared to what scale. There was one sample out of the many in the past 24 hours that was substantially higher than the averages. Maybe that single report was used to additionally sensationalize this story? Is so, then shame on Mark Guarino and the CSM editors.
But, I’m sure that none of the readers of the CSM are willing to turn off their PC forever. Maybe you swapped out your incandescent lights for the CFLs which will soon pollute our land fills with mercury. But none of us are figuring out how to live without electricity. But I also doubt that many of the ‘green’ folks specified that any concrete in their homes contain fly ash. Nor did many of them look for wall board made from this byproduct. Until the green folks start putting words into practice, they will not be any more credible than journalists with inaccurate reporting.
17. brandywine@astound.net | 12.31.08
There is no such thing as “Clean Coal.” It’s a self-canceling phrase used by slick Marketing guys. Scrubbers or no, when it burns, it’s a filthy, toxic fuel. Recall London’s 20th Century Scourge of Killer Fogs and the Dec. 1930 Belgium- Meuse Valley’s of 63 deaths, 6,000 people sickened due to polluted air from an air inversion caused by excessive coal burning? From the book, The Environmental Case for Nuclear Power,” these excerpts:
” In the U.S. we burn about one billon tons of coal a year. [1998]” “In 1996 coal was responsible for 88 percent of the 19 million tons of sulfur dioxide released.” “… linked to bronchitis and other serious respiratory diseases and deaths.” Recall London’s 20th Century Scourge of Killer Fogs and the Dec. 1930 Belgium- Meuse Valley’s of 63 deaths, 6,000 people sickened due to polluted air from an air inversion caused by excessive coal burning?
“Radium, thorium, uranium and polonium [released from coal burning]are all radioactive carcinogens.”
“Although the EPA doesn’t include many of these substances in its reports, the use of coal also results in the yearly emission of at least 1,000 tons EACH of toxic mercury, beryllium, manganese, selenium, and nickel, and lesser amounts of arsenic, cadmnium, asbestos, bensol, and other hydrocarbons.”
Unlike USA, France is remarkably independent from oil shocks and has the cleanest air in all of Euroope. France is not shelling out the kind of money we are to our 3 biggest oil importers: 1. Canada, 2. Saudi Arabia, 3. Mexico. Our standard of living here is being diminished because of this! But look at France. They’re not shelling out much at all for oil. Why? 30 years ago, when we stopped bldg. nuclear plants and switched to coal, France had their engineers pick up the technology we invented, and refined it to even higher standards. Today, France has the cleanest air in all of Europe! Almost all of their electrical energy comes from smaller nuclear plants.
French nuclear technology is cutting edge. It’s different than it was when our old ones were built. They’re smaller, more simplified, smarter, and much safer. Like the famous, very high-quality French health system, the wonderful gastronimique tradition, this is another area where the French are way ahead of us.
Obama said that he will consider the new nuclear technology, and I hope for the sake of our country we do as well. Unlike our retrograde current President Bush, who apparently didn’t do take much to science in school, Obama made an enlightened choice for his U.S. Energy Secretary by selecting Stephen Chu. Dr. Chu is director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and shared the 1997 Nobel Prize in physics. He was an early advocate for scientific solutions to climate change. Barak has also picked an environmental veteran to head up environmental policies. Obama has said that he wants to look at nuclear as part of our energy mix. Some of these initial moves he’s making seem promising.
Brandy
18. Moses Calouro | 12.31.08
It is interesting how the coal industry is lobbying against wind farms…
19. Marie | 12.31.08
Not sure why they call it a “pond” at 100 acres large and 65 feet deep! They say one acre is roughly the size of a football field. So now imagine 100 football fields. Is that a pond? And there are 440 of these “ponds” nationwide.
20. Dennis Shekinah | 12.31.08
check out Donna Lisenby’s video for eyes on the ground. The end will blow you away. Follow link at bottom of our website: http://www.wataugawatershed.org
21. Shannon | 01.01.09
This excerpt is from the NYT . . . “enough to cover 3,000 acres one foot deep.”
“Officials at the authority initially said that about 1.7 million cubic yards of wet coal ash had spilled when the earthen retaining wall of an ash pond at the Kingston Fossil Plant, about 40 miles west of Knoxville, gave way on Monday. But on Thursday they released the results of an aerial survey that showed the actual amount was 5.4 million cubic yards, or enough to flood more than 3,000 acres one foot deep.”
22. Rick | 01.01.09
I have been in that area almost every day since the spill. TVA says it’s 300 acres. I invite anyone to come out and see for themselves. What you see on television is just what they want you to see. The EPA tested the water down river. However. the water in the surrounding coves were not tested until recently. We are still waiting on those test results. When the real numbers come in, they will be posted. TVA’s first and most important job to them was to fix the railroad tracks that were destroyed and the road leading to the plant so they could get their coal in. They ignored the land and people that were completely devastated on the other side of the river.
I am not a big environmentalist. But if you saw this from the ground, you would use one word to describe it; insane. There are areas that TVA will not restore because it would take years. I can say this because I do go there every day. Some of my family live there. If anyone wants pictures that haven’t been seen on television, I would be more than happy to send them to you. I have been keeping this in the forefront since day one. I refuse to let it be covered up like the spills in Kentucky and Pennsylvania were. And this spill was 3 times larger than the one in Kentucky. It is the largest spill of it’s kind in US history.
Again, I see it every day. I know what TVA, the EPA, and local officials are doing. Our own governor didn’t show up until yesterday. And he didn’t tour the area most effected. Our Senators have been absent. And FEMA? What is that? It seems non-existant to us around here.
23. IndianaSteve | 01.01.09
Rick, I think you probably offer the best perspective available, being there daily. Having family nearby.
You should have a website with nothing but your pics (with captions) so that real people could see what the heck is going on through your eyes, rather than through the censored eyes of the media.
I would ask that you point me to your pictures, but your post has no contact info - a webpage would be an excellent start.
Keep up the faith Rick - GOD really is watching.
-Steve
24. Bobbie | 01.01.09
Thank you so much to Dennis Shekinah for posting the WWA web/video link. I don’t watch TV and live far from Tennessee. Therefore I didn’t really appreciate the horror of this spill until watching this video. When will we all wake up and start refusing power and authority to the kinds of people who can call out law enforcement to remove a team of law-abiding concerned citizens from a public waterway? I’m sure their removal was done under the guise of “safety concerns” for the individuals on this expedition. But how in the @#$% is it “safe” for anyone to allow a cover-up and snail paced response to this disaster? When will more of us step out of our comfort zones in the manners of Donna, Sandra and John? Peaceful exposition of the hypocrisy is the best and most effective weapon at our disposal.
25. dave cooper | 01.01.09
Greetings from Kingston TN. CSM says ” … could be the largest environmental disaster in US history.”
I was out at the spill site yesterday with a Sierra Club official and some media … the interesting thing to me is that after talking to the people who live near the spill, it seems that some local residents still have some loyalty to TVA even after what “could be the largest environmental disaster in US history.”
Kingston is a small Tennessee town, its conservative and they feel like TVA is the home team - and some aren’t really happy with the outside enviros coming in to take pictures. Its an interesting social dynamic and not uniform - some are glad to see us
Guess who’s coming to town tomorrow: Erin Brockovich. You should see the local Roane County comments about that. Everyone is saying she’s just coming here to sign up clients for a big lawsuit. Ya think?
Id rather see Lois Gibbs (love Canal) come here and tell her story. The folks here dont really understand know what lies ahead for them and it could be a long and difficult struggle.
26. Rick | 01.01.09
Today we learned TVA’s plan. They are going to start Saturday leveling all of this sludge, mud, and debree off. Then they are going to use helicopters to cover it all with fertilizer and grass seed. The coves will not be restored. There will be no more water in these areas. Not only are they covering up the truth, but the land too. Next week, from the air, the area will look untouched. My guess is that the fertilizer will be green so it all looks good. I do not have a web site, but if anyone wants to see this mess across the river, I can be reached at solrec12@aol.com. I’ll show you what the intend to cover up.
27. Charles | 01.01.09
Do any of you Toxic People know what the black grit on house shingles is made from? 2 words FLY ASH!
Until about 2-3 years ago we used it to fill in low spots before we put down concrete.
I live close to a fly ash recyling company, know some of the people that work there, know people that have hauled the stuff for more than 25 yrs. They are still alive and appear to be in good health
28. Sara Beth Cowgill | 01.02.09
They say that the heavy metals will be filtered out by the water treatment plants– and I think, yes, the drinking water will go through the treatment plant, BUT
What about the living water?
What about the RIVER? The river is alive, teeming with stacked ecosystems–
It is paramount that we stop thinking only about the immediate need for drinking water and look at cleaning the heavy metals, and solvents out of the living water that has been taxed by this clean coal processing facility.
Meanwhile, I think the entire operations of this plant should be halted until they get this emergency completely cleaned– none of this business as usual, bringing in profits while others are suffering.
AND I think they should be FINED for using the turbidity curtain to safeguard the processors intake water supply while allowing toxic sludge to travel down stream– it’s ludicrous!
29. Sara Beth Cowgill | 01.02.09
v-Man
NO. Underground injection sites are awful! they should be lined, if used at all. Smart if you don’t know about hydrocycles ecology, biological systems and geology, but not at all smart if you do. It spills right into the water table– and ruins the wells and springs/
30. Anon | 01.02.09
Considering Tenessee keeps voting for anti-environmental republicans, what do they have to complain about???
31. Jobe | 01.07.09
There are several different types/mixtures of “flyash”. Some that adheres to certain standards is used in a variety of products; cement, pipe backfill, shingles, earthen fills. It depends on the chemical makeup how potentially good or bad it is, and what you can do with it. Also, for the person who wants to completely stop operations until the spill is completely repaired and controlled, what about all the customers doing without electricity, especially heat. Need to rethink that proposal.
33. Susan | 02.26.09
Coal ash and dust is not only poisoning and will continue to poison the air and water, but the ash is recycled by spreading onto agriculture, where toxic arsenic collects in vegetation, which animals and people eat. Arsenic has been found around the world to increase peripheral neuropathy and vascular disease in humans and animals, in addition to causing cancer. There are huge quantities of arsenic in the mining and burning of coal, and the recycling of coal ash. But, arsenic is not alone its coal’s toxic constituents.
Coal also contains high levels of radionuclides (alike nuclear power) and oil and gas due to formations below the surface. Radionuclides, based on the weight of evidence, cause bone cancer in humans and animals.
Coal contains the toxic metals lead, thallium, and mercury. Lead and mercury damage the brains and cognitive ability of animals and people. Lead increases the risk of sterility in males and has been linked to cancers. Mercury is a neurotoxin, which also damages the brain. Alike lead, arsenic, and cadmium (all prevalent in coal), mercury is a endocrine (hormone) disruptor, which is building up in fish, and animals and people who eat the fish worldwide.
Coal also contains polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, most of which have been discovered to cause cancer in people and animals. From mining to disposal, coal is toxic to living things, global warming, and the environment. Health care costs rise due to the mining, burning and disposal of coal ash, and toxic constituents of coal make it the world’s most toxic fuels. If the health care costs were factored into the price of coal, it would also be the world’s most expensive fuel.
There are cleaner fuels, including solar, wind, geothermal and combinations. Conservation and better designs reduce energy usage. We don’t need more coal. We don’t need higher costs to public health.
Because pharmaceuticals do not repair, they control symptoms! Prevention protects public health, the environment, and the planet.
This means that bone cancer increases with more and more mining, burning, and recycling, and dumping of coal ash.
34. Susan | 02.26.09
Charles seems confused about fly ash. Fly ash is caught by air pollution controls assuming they are in place and intact and the bag-house filter is not burned out by the corrosive gases. Fly ash contains they most toxic constituents in any burning process. Most coal-fired power plants do not have air pollution controls. And, the Bush Administration eliminated most of the regulations which were previously in place and put in their place industry approved regulations—zero regulation. However, the better the air pollution controls, the more toxic the fly ash residue.
Once captured, the fly ash is often mixed with the bottom ash, which falls beneath the grates. The combination is recycled and one of the main recycling avenues is where there is zero regulation.
Soil, compost, fertilizer has zero or near zero controls or regulation. Coal ash is sold or given to farmers to spread on their land because it has some elements that help plants grow. However, farmers are not told about its poisonous constituents, which help innocent people and animals become sick and die!
I suspect that many of the workers in the ash recycling plant have numerous health complaints which modern medicine can mask, but not cure!
35. Susan | 02.26.09
There is no such thing as clean up after the planet has been trash with toxic ash and mining wastes. The toxic constituents, including the toxic heavy metals, are elements which cannot be destroyed once mined!
The toxic debris is carried by the wind, the streams, rivers, bays, and estuaries and oceans where it poisons all life on which people and animals needed to sustain. Heavy metals and other toxic constituents have been found in the groundwater, aquifers below landfills, so why not where ash is spread or recycled? Is it because independent lab tests and reports ave not been done?
Among the favored cleanup methods by cleanup contractors is moving the toxic ash from one community to another once cleaner community where there are good roads, a conservative public and corrupt public officials. Hence, both areas and people are poisoned.
The moral is health care costs rise while pharms mask symptoms but, don’t cure disease caused by the burning of toxic fuels. And, the planet is poisoned forever because corrupt companies and officials redefine the word, “CLEAN,” as in “clean up”. The only thing they clean up is taxpayer dollars for their greed!
36. Kevin Leonard | 02.27.09
This only further supports the development of clean energy. Would you want this to happen in your backyard? Or on the pond or river you grew up on as a child? Every single process in regards to coal, the mining, the transportation, the combustion reaction, the toxic sludge left over, is all dirty. There is NO such thing as clean coal. The U.S. is expected to run out of area to store waste in landfills in the upcoming years. Eliminating coal as an energy source would reduce air pollution, reduce the impact mining has on land, and eliminate the nasty byproducts of coal. Renewable energy is our best option, and hopefully this incident opens many peoples eyes about the dangers of coal.
37. Tim Richelieu Quebec | 03.05.09
Don’t know how many of you have heard this.
TVA police and the Sherriff’s department don’t want anyone other than TDEC & CTEH to do Air Monitoring. They detained a UMD (United Mountain Defense) member for 2 hours and searched him, seemingly without a warrant after he tried to set up an air monitoring station in the area on private property, with the owners permission.
Looks like it’s time to send in the National Guard like they had to do in Selma Alabama on March 7 1965 after an unprovoked attack by State Police on unarmed civil rights marchers.
38. Louis Joe Lanc | 03.28.09
On answers to the false dangers of fly ash in the making of Concrete, You need to read the book on MAKING BETTER CONCRETE by Bruce King, P.E. To Quote:
“The idea of not just adding fly ash to known concrete mixes, but using large quantities to replace 30%,50%or more of the portland cement, the - glue
-in a concrete mix. Most of the reasons for using fly ash in any proportion are practical, such as increasing strength and durability,decreasing heat of hydration and decreased permeability. Those reasons alone make the idea of high fly ash concrete (HFAC) worth considering.”
“How much Fly Ash makes Concrete “GREEN”? ” About 50% replacement results in concrete that is better for the builder, for the building owner and for the planet.” “making it one of the key components of a global industrial ecology.”
There is a building system “Concrete Plastic Units.” It is a Clear Plastic forming system for Steel reinforced concrete that uses Clear PVC forms that are designed to stay in place to protect the concrete, steel and utilities from moisture intrusion making the structure WATERPROOF. In the process the forms contain the (HFAC) inside 1/8″ of Clear Plastic and the fly ash is not exposed to the environment. The structures are affordable, disaster proof including Fire Proof. They are earthquake resistant because the Plastic will hold the structure together, longer.
The Government or TVA should use this spill as a means to push the Concrete Industry to use more Fly Ash in their mix. Turn this disaster into a means to eliminate the stock piling of fly ash for the good of the Plantet.
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1. captainkona | 12.31.08
Just to say thank you for covering this.
I’m not far from this disaster and it is far worse than most can imagine.
Due to the great Liberal bloggers we have here in TN, the TVA cover-up attempt failed. It’s bad, really bad.
Thanx again.