A Not So Merry Christmas In Tennessee

I am blessed enough in my life that I can fly down to warm, sunny Florida and spend time with my girlfriend and her parents for this holiday season. At least so far, I do not have to deal with any calamities, either natural or man-made. However, up in Tennessee, a dam broke just two days ago near the town of Harriman and damaged several homes. Luckily no one was seriously injured or killed.

From The Huffington Post:

HARRIMAN, Tenn. — An earthen dam holding back a retention pond broke early Monday at a power plant run by the nation's largest public utility, releasing a frigid mix of water, ash and mud that damaged 12 homes and put hundreds of acres of rural land under water.

The 40-acre pond was used by the Tennessee Valley Authority to hold a slurry of ash generated by the coal-burning Kingston Steam Plant in Harriman, about 50 miles west of Knoxville, said TVA spokesman Gil Francis. The dam gave way just before 1 a.m, burying a road and railroad tracks leading to the plant under several feet of dark gray mud.

So far the blame has been put on heavy rain and cold temperatures. I'm not an engineer, but I simply do not buy that. Dams that are built to hold the waste of a coal power plant should be able to withstand changes in the weather. I'm glad that the Tennessee Valley Authority is going to check up on the other fifty-something year old dams in the area, but a better investment is needed in these structures that have so much potential destructive energy in them. Or else next time we might not be as lucky with injuries or fatalities.