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Dan River contamination

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prophet

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thisnumbersdisconnected

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Continually amazed a the excitability of people who can be led around by the nose by others who have an agenda.

Coal ash, also known as fly ash, or "coal fly ash" is a product used in Portland cement. It's plentiful, cheap and therefore isn't easily sold, so it sits in storage ponds like the one at Dan River -- unless, of course, the pond breaches containment, in which case, you get what you got in the Dan River.

The article from the Charlotte Observer makes the claim that coal ash contains heavy metals that, in high concentrations, are dangerous. True. But those "high concentrations" aren't present in coal ash. Therefore ...

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Water treatment plants can easily filter out this coarse material and keep it from our drinking water. Note the Danville Municipal Water Supervisor is quoted in the article as saying "it's no problem." Much ado about nothing.
 
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Gina B

Active Member
And the water in West Virginia isn't a problem anymore either, perfectly safe. Drink away.

Shill. Shillings. Whatever. So long as your pockets are jingling, right?
 
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thisnumbersdisconnected

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Gina B said:
And the water in West Virginia isn't a problem anymore either, perfectly safe. Drink away.
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Typical of you and others. Confronted with facts you can't overcome, you leap to gross over-generalizations to "prove your point" but instead show your ignorance.

West Virginia: Not the same problem, chemically or sociopoltically. Get a clue. Please. I keep begging you. To know avail.
 
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abcgrad94

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I dont know about you, but I do not want or need any weird chemicals in my drinking water! Who cares what the concentration is.
 
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thisnumbersdisconnected

New Member
abcgrad94 said:
I dont know about you, but I do not want or need any weird chemicals in my drinking water! Who cares what the concentration is.
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And you wouldn't have to worry about it.
“All water leaving our treatment facility has met public health standards,” Barry Dunkley, division director of water and wastewater treatment for Danville Utilities, said in the statement.

“We do not anticipate any problems going forward in treating the water we draw from the Dan River,” Dunkley said.

The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality had no indication of water quality problems near Danville or any other section of the river in the state, spokesman William Hayden said in an e-mail statement.
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Any part of that you or anyone else failed to grasp?
 
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abcgrad94

Active Member
thisnumbersdisconnected said:
And you wouldn't have to worry about it.
Any part of that you or anyone else failed to grasp?
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I don't appreciate your snarky tone.

Today marks a full 4 weeks for my area in WV having contaminated water. We've had to make do using as little as 2 gallons of bottled water a day for our family of 4. That's for sponge baths, drinking water, and cooking. We've had to travel out of county to find a laundromat with decent water that won't ruin our clothes or leave a residue that causes skin reactions. We've suffered asthma attacks, skin rashes, severe headaches, itching, nausea and diarrhea even AFTER officials have declared the water "safe."

Just yesterday a student and a teacher passed out at school from the fumes coming from the chemical in the water supply. No, nothing to see here folks, keep drinking and using the water and let's all pretend it's fine. . .

We've been lied to time and again by corporations and political and health officials. Maybe what YOU fail to grasp is that not all of us believe these lies anymore, especially when it comes to our drinking water.
 
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thisnumbersdisconnected

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abcgrad94 said:
I don't appreciate your snarky tone.
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Sorry, didn't intend to be snarky. I'd already posted that quote once in the thread, but some people -- not you in particular, but some -- prefer to ignore facts in order to continue on their irrational rants. Anyway, my apologies, and I ask your forgiveness.
abcgrad94 said:
Today marks a full 4 weeks for my area in WV having contaminated water. We've had to make do using as little as 2 gallons of bottled water a day for our family of 4. That's for sponge baths, drinking water, and cooking. We've had to travel out of county to find a laundromat with decent water that won't ruin our clothes or leave a residue that causes skin reactions. We've suffered asthma attacks, skin rashes, severe headaches, itching, nausea and diarrhea even AFTER officials have declared the water "safe."

Just yesterday a student and a teacher passed out at school from the fumes coming from the chemical in the water supply.
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I understand, and went to pains to separate, the West Virginia situation as being dire. The Dan River spill by Duke Energy is nothing compared to the West Virginia chemical spill. Freedom Industries should be held criminally liable for such lax storage and management of the methylcyclohexane methanol that spilled into the Elk. I sympathize with you and other West Virginians who are being told your "water is safe to drink" when it is obvious that isn't the case.
abcgrad94 said:
No, nothing to see here folks, keep drinking and using the water and let's all pretend it's fine. . .
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You're facing that attitude, I know, and again, it's ignorant for the government to urge you to use water that still smells and that lets vapors escape that are obviously dangerous. Yet again, your situation is different than the North Carolina spill. There is nothing in that coal ash that can cause harm in the low concentrations that exist, or else it wouldn't be safe to use in Portland cement. It is such coarse material besides, that the treatment plants will remove any trace of the ash from the water supply, so if there were anything in it that could cause harm, it would never reach anyone's tap water.

I'm all for holding companies and governments accountable when they ignore public health and safety, act irresponsibly, and attempt to cover up their stupidity. But not every circumstance that comes along is of the same level of concern, health threat, or public safety issue. The Dan River spill is nothing, literally "nothing to see here folks" and I'm sorry my attitude offended you or anyone else. However, when people decry every single incident like this, they risk being "the boy who cried wolf," and anesthetize the public and the government against responding every single time. When there isn't anything to see, don't look. Wait for a real emergency to complain about.
 
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Gina B

Active Member
Have you bothered to think about the environmental hazards of this stuff washing on shore or why the one reservoir in Virginia already stopped using water that feeds from there?

Just think a little. It's not rocket science. They're not fighting to contain this because it's perfectly harmless.

The lack of news over these issues is disconcerting. Everyone is screaming over health care. That's important, but in the big scheme of things, it takes a back burner to the most basic of human needs - clean water. You can't survive without it and contaminated water will destroy your health, your land, your environment. But no, look over there, something else is happening, and trust when they say it's okay...no story here, huh?

That's not okay. We're told in Scripture to take care of the earth, not stand by and watch it destroyed. That's not for fun. It's for our own benefit.
 
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thisnumbersdisconnected

New Member
Gina B said:
Have you bothered to think about the environmental hazards of this stuff washing on shore or why the one reservoir in Virginia already stopped using water that feeds from there?
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What happens when a forest fire occurs and the ash washes into the local waters? Nothing. You're question is uninformed.
Gina B said:
Just think a little. It's not rocket science. They're not fighting to contain this because it's perfectly harmless.
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"Fighting to contain it?" Show me a link that says that. They aren't. Their first steps are to repair the leak, not attempt a cleanup, though our EPA, equally as irrational as you are, has sent backhoes and dump trucks to the river, for what I can't imagine. Are they going to shovel water out of the river? What stupid, idiotic government unthinking bureaucracy. There's nothing to this stuff. Literally, "move along folks, nothing to see here." It would really help if you know what the heck you're talking about, and despite being proven wrong, alarmist, uninformed, or all three, you keep posting junk like this. Fine. The sane among us will keep pointing out your error, false alarming, and misinformation, if you really want us to.
Gina B said:
The lack of news over these issues is disconcerting.
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It couldn't possibly be lacking because it doesn't happen often, nor does it usually result in legitimate panic like in West Virginia, could it?

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Gina B said:
Everyone is screaming over health care. That's important, but in the big scheme of things, it takes a back burner to the most basic of human needs - clean water. You can't survive without it and contaminated water will destroy your health, your land, your environment. But no, look over there, something else is happening, and trust when they say it's okay...no story here, huh?
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No, no story here. Your irrational rant would make us think we are running out of clean water. We're not, despite what you and other enviro-nuts would like to propagandize about.
Gina B said:
That's not okay. We're told in Scripture to take care of the earth ...
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That's why we have water treatment plants, waste treatment plants, and rational approaches to conservation that, whether you want to believe it or not, work just fine without the hysteria you'd like to impose.
Gina B said:
... not stand by and watch it destroyed. That's not for fun. It's for our own benefit.
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More irrational rant. Thanks for the entertainment, but its time to take care of people who actually need help. Good day.
 
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Gina B

Active Member
Wow. Now that you said that wood ash that makes its way to a river after a forest fire doesn't hurt anything, I can see why you believe that mass amounts of coal ash would also be harmless. Forgive my lack of logic.
I plumb forgot about them thar coal tree forest fires and all the studies done that show them harmless. Too busy dancing around to geetar music in my bar feet and singing to seedlings while making flower wreaths for my hair.
And here I had worried my silly little brain thinking of heavy metals in coal ash and looking at pictures of the sludge and thinking it wasn't a good thing, when it's perfectly normal. Like when a forest fire happens.
Thanks for straightening me out. I may just go get my tin cup and dip it in. Sounds like it might actually contain a lot of vitamins. And tree ash makes good soap. I was squeezing olives earlier, so I have fresh oil.
Have a great day, and thanks for the help.
 
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abcgrad94

Active Member
thisnumbersdisconnected said:
Sorry, didn't intend to be snarky. I'd already posted that quote once in the thread, but some people -- not you in particular, but some -- prefer to ignore facts in order to continue on their irrational rants. Anyway, my apologies, and I ask your forgiveness.
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Thank you for your sincere apology.

I don't know much about the ash spill in the Dan River. It may be "safe" or not. I'm no expert, but unfortunately I can no longer trust "the experts." For me, personally, after being lied to by officials more than once concerning our water supply, I will always be cautious and doubtful of any expert that claims foreign matter in our water is "safe."

Once bitten, twice shy.
 
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Gina B

Active Member
Tests are still being done. Right now, there are conflicting reports about the levels of arsenic in the water: http://www.roanoke.com/news/article_01b39d78-9010-11e3-8287-0017a43b2370.html

A bit about coal ash: http://www.psr.org/assets/pdfs/coal-ash-toxics-damaging-to-human-health.pdf

It seems they were warned for years that this was a concern.

I still don't understand why these places keep such things near rivers, given the rapid and potentially devastating consequences once they hit the water and get carried. Wouldn't it be easier to control if a problem happened elsewhere?
There must be a reason for this - some kind of logic or need for vast amounts of water nearby that someone can explain to me.
 
poncho

poncho

Well-Known Member
abcgrad94 said:
I don't appreciate your snarky tone.

Today marks a full 4 weeks for my area in WV having contaminated water. We've had to make do using as little as 2 gallons of bottled water a day for our family of 4. That's for sponge baths, drinking water, and cooking. We've had to travel out of county to find a laundromat with decent water that won't ruin our clothes or leave a residue that causes skin reactions. We've suffered asthma attacks, skin rashes, severe headaches, itching, nausea and diarrhea even AFTER officials have declared the water "safe."

Just yesterday a student and a teacher passed out at school from the fumes coming from the chemical in the water supply. No, nothing to see here folks, keep drinking and using the water and let's all pretend it's fine. . .

We've been lied to time and again by corporations and political and health officials. Maybe what YOU fail to grasp is that not all of us believe these lies anymore, especially when it comes to our drinking water.
Click to expand...

What he fails to grasp is his "idols" the government and corporations lie all the time.
 
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thisnumbersdisconnected

New Member
Gina B said:
Tests are still being done. Right now, there are conflicting reports about the levels of arsenic in the water: http://www.roanoke.com/news/article_01b39d78-9010-11e3-8287-0017a43b2370.html

A bit about coal ash: http://www.psr.org/assets/pdfs/coal-ash-toxics-damaging-to-human-health.pdf

It seems they were warned for years that this was a concern.
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The arsenic isn't from the coal ash. It is from a second pipe leaking, and that is what they were told, years ago, they needed to repair or replace. The second leak is unrelated to the coal ash, even though most of the national media is reporting it is "coming from the coal ash dump." It's not. They need to pay closer attention to their sources, because the sources in their own stories are contradicting their headlines. The LA Times is crediting the revised arsenic level reports to "error" from the first tests. Again, not so, though there were errors in reporting the first tests, even the revised numbers do not exceed safe levels. The unsafe levels are, again, from the second leak, which goes under the coal ash dump pond, but does not carry coal ash. It has been sued to store other pollutants from the retired coal-fired power plant.

The second leak is a major concern, and should have been addressed when they were first warned about it. Instead, they've severely polluted the river by ignoring the warnings. Duke Energy needs to get slapped upside the head for this one.
 
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