Part One of Dr. Shea Tuberty and Dr. Carol Babyak Discussing TVA Coal Ash Sampling Results

[nulwee]

Thank you for documenting this tragedy. And this is a tragedy--it's a sad story that's come about through human error. This was not an "accident" so much as negligence. Two more toxic spills have happened in the region since December 22. A gypsum pond at another coal plant and a leak from dam repairs on prime recreational water.

[sassafrassmolly]

Gamoonbat, it would be beneficial to know that while Kingston is 6 miles downstream from the spill site, they are also approx. 1/2 mile UPSTREAM from the Clinch and Tennessee river confluence (and their water supply intake is upstream as well). So of course their water is not going to show high levels. We need to see samplings near some townships on the Emory and Clinch tested, as well as DOWNSTREAM on the Tennessee. Kingston is the TVA's poster child, and has never even been in imminent danger.

[gamoonbat]

We have come a long way since Three Mile Island. TVA is not disputing the lab work at this point. They are questioning the fieldwork done in collecting the samples. These are samples taken at the source of contamination rather than at the intake for drinking water.

[mtncur]

gamoonbat I am a fieldworker for the last 30yrs. Degree in bio, minored in chem. When the lab results come and the managers understand, they always throw the blame back to the field work. Chain of custody? Legal definitions? Environmental reality is a farce based on a legal system of definitions. Those definitions spend all the well intentioned public "money" on litigation; not on solving the problem itself.

[gamoonbat]

Right. I believe that more fieldwork has been done now. The high readings have held up, particularly for arsenic.

[mtncur]

Finally, some quantitative data. Remember the quote from the expert after Three Mile Island incident? "Environmental sampling is not a science; it is an art". I will be surprised if we don't hear the same from TVA.