Walking in Memphis — Above a Coal Ash Cesspool

The groundwater beneath the Tennessee Valley Authority’s coal-fired Allen Fossil Plant in southwest Memphis — only two miles from the city’s drinking water supply — is contaminated with dangerously high amounts of arsenic and lead.

Memphis residents now have another reason to sing the blues. Last week, the nation’s largest public utility, Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), admitted that the groundwater beneath its Allen coal-burning power plant is poisoned with astronomically high amounts of arsenic. Levels of the potent carcinogen measure nearly 400 times the federal limit for drinking water. In addition, lead in the groundwater is more than four times the standard.

Click for info about coal-ash and human health.

The pollution is so serious that U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen recently sent a letter to the Tennessee Valley Authority asking why it believes toxins found under the TVA’s Allen Fossil Plant in Memphis are not affecting drinking water. The city’s water supply, serving 900,000 people, is only two miles from TVA’s leaking coal ash ponds. Filled with the toxic byproduct from burning coal, these ponds are the source of the hazardous mess. And the monitoring wells are only about a half-mile from deeper wells drilled by the TVA directly into the Memphis Sand aquifer. One monitoring well beneath the […]

Full article: Walking in Memphis—Just Feet Above a Coal Ash Cesspool

More about Coal Ash Ponds, Coal-based Power Plants, and Groundwater Pollution:

Global coal industry using as much water as a billion people each year

New Tests Reveal 15 out of 15 of Indiana’s Coal Ash Ponds Are Leaking

Groundwater Monitoring Reveals Widespread Radioactivity at Duke Energy Coal Plants​

Toxic waste from coal ash pits leaching into Illinois’ only National Scenic River

Coal Ash Pollution Threatens Groundwater At Western Kentucky Power Plant

Pennsylvania watershed contaminated with radioactive material and endocrine-disrupting chemicals