1100 Tons of Coal Dumped Near New River in Train Derailment
Jan 14th, 2009 by admin
From www.socm.org
Coal Train Operated by National Coal Corporation Derails in Scott County, Tennessee
Update: First hand account blog here
ONEIDA, Tenn. A coal train operated by National Coal Corporation over turned on Friday, January 9, 2009, spilling approximately 1100 tons of coal next to the New River in Scott County, Tennessee. Eight rail cars, which typically hold 120 tons of coal, were involved.
The contamination was discovered on Monday, January 12, 2009 by Steve Bakaletz, a Wildlife Biologist with the National Park Service at the Big South Fork (BSF) Recreation Area’s Oneida Office.
According to Mr. Bakaletz, cleanup had been ongoing through the weekend following the wreck but had not been completed by the time he discovered it. Video of the spill was taken by BSF employees. Mr. Bakaletz notified Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) on Monday after he discovered the spill. TWRA’s Sundquist WMA is nearby but was not directly impacted. The New River supports 2 endangered species of fish.
SOCM received an anonymous tip about the spill on Wednesday morning, and called the Public Information Officer (PIO) at BSF to try to verify the information. They were then connected by the PIO to Mr. Bakaletz who then described what he had found.
It’s uncanny that this coal transport accident should happen so close to the coal sludge tsunami at Harriman on December 22nd, 2008 and the dumping of coal ash at TVA’s Widows Creek facility in Alabama.
“Now we have examples — right here in Tennessee — of the dirty face of coal, from mountaintop and surface coal mining to coal transport to coal combustion and coal waste disposal,” said Cathie Bird, Chairperson of the Stripmine Issues Committee of SOCM.
“I think somebody’s trying to tell us something. We need to push past coal and focus on clean energy sources, before any more streams are trashed or lives disrupted,” said Bird.
