Big day of reckoning for TVA in the wake of the coal ash sludge disaster that we've been following closely here on Greenlight.  Senator Barbara Boxer convened a Senate hearing to figure out what went wrong and how to avoid similar catastrophes in the future.  The hearing comes on the heels of a eye-popping New York Times report that the TVA Kingston plant's coal ash waste site was only one of over 1,300 similar sites around the country, the vast majority of which are unmonitored and unregulated.  

Like the one in Tennessee, most of these dumps, which reach up to 1,500 acres, contain heavy metals like arsenic, lead, mercury and selenium, which are considered by the Environmental Protection Agency to be a threat to water supplies and human health. Yet they are not subject to any federal regulation, which experts say could have prevented the spill, and there is little monitoring of their effects on the surrounding environment.

The public and environmental health implications of these ash dumps are pretty quickly coming to light--and a push for better regulations of coal ash waste is coming fast and hard from many environmental and public advocacy groups.  NRDC Senior Scientist Dr. Allen Hershkowitz had this to say:

This disaster is an urgent wake-up call for the government to take immediate action to protect hundreds of communities and thousands of people against the toxic sludge produced from coal -- not just in Tennessee, but throughout the country. EPA and the next administration must act quickly to clean-up this mess and strengthen the regulations around coal waste to prevent further reckless and dangerous contamination of our water, air and land.”

In a press release, NRDC laid out a handful of recommendations for better regulating coal waste and protecting human health:

• EPA should prohibit the construction of new surface waste impoundments and the expansion of existing impoundments, and promptly study the integrity of existing impoundments, including requirements to ensure that risky facilities be promptly close in order to eliminate long-term threats.
• EPA should require that all landfills used for combustion waste disposal have adequate pollution controls, including composite liners, leachate collection and treatment systems, and groundwater and surface water monitoring systems. Perpetual long-term maintenance and bonding should be required.
• EPA should require that all existing coal waste impoundments be drained, closed, and cleaned up, and that all surface impoundments closed within at least the last 20 years be evaluated for human health and environmental risks. 
• TVA should immediately provide free and prompt medical and blood testing for all individuals and families who request it in the affected region and around other coal waste ponds.

As for the hearing today, NRDC's Rob Perks is there observing, and will be posting about it over at Switchboard later today.  We'll keep you posted.