Filthy Coal is a great new site for keeping up to date on developments in the world of coal, our dirtiest source of electricity. Here's their mission statement:

 

The site was launched around the response to the Harriman, Tennessee coal ash disaster spill this past December, when 1 BILLION gallons of coal ash broke out of a containment pond and coated over 400 acres with toxic sludge. The poisonous coal ash spread into streams and rivers and has polluted drinking water with dangerous levels of arsenic, cadmium, and lead.

 

Here is a video showing pictures of Harriman before and after the disaster set to a great tune written by folk artist Nick Annis:

 

 

What happened in Tennessee is a tragedy that is bound to repeat itself as long as we continue to burn coal. Coal ash sludge is just one finger on the fist of coal that's pounding us all in the face. Digging coal out of the ground kills miners, blasts away mountains, buries valleys and pollutes streams and drinking water. Burning it releases CO2, mercury, lead and other harmful pollutants into our atmosphere, and then the ash from the burn is turned into sludge and piled up in ponds where it will leak or break out a few decades down the line. There is nothing clean about any of the steps in that process.

 

There is no such thing as clean coal.

 

There is no such thing as clean coal.

 

There is no such thing as clean coal.