Documentary foresaw recent coal disaster

A 2005 documentary called “Sludge” eerily portended the Dec. 22 Tennessee environmental disaster in which the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) says a dike breach spilled more than 5.4 million cubic yards of ash and has covered about 300 acres. The ash is a byproduct of burning coal from a TVA power plant.

The Kingston Fossil Plant, where the spill took place, generates electricity for hundreds of thousands of homes in the region. The plant is at a confluence of two rivers and a lake. The coal ash, which had been stacked as high as 55 feet in places, broke through an earthen dike that contained it.

The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that promotes responsible energy choices, called the TVA Kingston Fossil Plant ash spill a “historical energy disaster.” The group says it is “causing undetermined consequences to water, land, residents and wildlife in Roane County, Tenn.”

Stephen Smith, executive director for the alliance, said government officials should more strongly encourage residents to avoid the sludge that surrounds their homes. “This is clearly one of the most severe environmental disasters of East Tennessee,” Smith said. “There are multiple pathways in which people can become potentially affected by these heavy metals, including bodily contact, drinking water, air pathways and aquatic wildlife and fish, and we feel that appropriate warnings should be expressed to ensure the safety of Tennessee residents.”

“Sludge” is a documentary that investigated a 2000 Kentucky coal- waste disaster. It examined the lax role of federal regulatory agencies in the coalfields. Filmed over four years, the documentary chronicles the aftermath of the spill, the “whistleblower” case of Jack Spadaro, and the looming threat of coal-sludge ponds throughout the region.

It was shortly after midnight on Oct. 11, 2000, when a coal-sludge impoundment in Martin County, Ky., broke through an underground mine below, propelling 306 million gallons of sludge down two tributaries of the Tug Fork River. By morning, Wolf Creek was oozing with the black waste; on Coldwater Fork, a 10-foot-wide stream became a 100-yard expanse of thick sludge.

The spill polluted hundreds of miles of waterways, contaminated the water supply for over 27,000 residents, and killed all aquatic life in Coldwater Fork and Wolf Creek.

The spill was 30 times larger than the Exxon Valdez spill and one of the worst environmental disasters in the southeastern United States, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

“Sludge” is a story of the residents and communities in the coalfields, but it is also a look behind the curtain: a story of the overseers and regulators responsible for health and safety and the agencies and departments that house them. It revealed some of the hidden costs of America’s coal production and the penalty exacted upon the people of the Appalachian Mountains in exchange for cheap electricity.

Robert Salyer of Appalshop Films produced the documentary. He says that there are some 235 other sludge dams in Kentucky and West Virginia that are a threat to local communities, including one just above an elementary school with 273 children.

Appalshop began in 1969 as an experiment in community-based filmmaking. It is now celebrating 40 years of producing and sharing media while acknowledging the ability of communities and individuals to tell their own stories.

One week after the Dec. 22 disaster, families were still evacuating the Tennessee sludge scene. Several people had to be rescued from collapsed homes.

Thomas C. Fox is NCR editor and can be reached at tfox@ncronline.org.

Online resources
Those interested in encouraging local movie theaters or local parishes to show the documentary can contact Robert Salyer at: rslayer@appalshop.org. Or they can write to: Appalshop, 91 madison Ave., Whitesburge, KY 41858, (606) 633-0108, (606) 633-1009.

National Catholic Reporter January 9, 2009