The Maryland Department of the Environment is reporting a coal ash spill, this time on the Potomac River.
[Creative Commons photo by Mikko Itälahti]
How many spills does this make in the past few months alone? There was the devastating TVA spill in Tennessee, the January spill in Alabama, and now this. Three spills in three months is a pretty terrible track record that underscores our need to move beyond coal as a primary fuel source.
The Maryland Department of the Environment press release said:
..a coal ash slurry spill had occurred into the North Branch Potomac River. Company officials advised that a pipeline that carries liquid ash from the Mill’s power plant to an ash storage lagoon in West Virginia had ruptured, allowing approximately 4,000 gallons of slurried ash to discharge directly into the river.
Coal ash is full of horrible chemicals like lead and arsenic. Cleanup is underway, but there were fears that the spill would make its way down the Potomac to Washington, D.C. I wonder if a scare so close to home will urge lawmakers to stop spreading the clean coal myth now that it’s their drinking water that could have been contaminated.
About Becky Striepe
