TVA official Gil Francis said today's leak at its Widows Creek coal-burning power plant in northeastern Alabama, was caused by a break in a pipe that removes water from the 147-acre gypsum pond.
The water leaked into a settling pond, where water then escaped into Widows Creek.
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I chose to submit this because this is the source which broke the story of another spill at a TVA facility. While TVA says it's gypsum, the reporters say a Scottsboro, AL resident refutes this in the story. Although the story is on the web and has been updated there is still no comment on from TVA about his allegations. Said the man, only id'd as "Morgan," “This is ash. It’s not gypsum. This is the same stuff on the shoreline up there at Kingston. It’s very obvious what’s happening. All the rains we’ve had, these retention ponds haven’t been inspected and are rupturing. The TVA is not being honest about this and that is very bothersome.” Morgan is a member of a Blue Ridge Environmental Defense affiliated group (Bellefonte Efficiency Sustainability Team) and provided photos he says he took today of a silvery sludge coating the shore at Bellefonte Landing, near a site for which TVA is seeking a permit to build a nuclear power plant his group opposes. That's 12 miles downstream of Widows Creek, on the Tennessee River.
