Published: February 10, 2009 06:15 pm      

WE THE PEOPLE: Water, water everywhere, but ...

It’s rockfish season. Sportsmen and their sons (and daughters) follow the giant aquatic predators as they move to the base of Watts Bar Dam to feed. Both predator and their prey are attracted by pieces of their unfortunate kin, sliced into chum by the turbine blades of TVA’s generators deep inside the dam. Positioning a small boat in the frigid, swirling waters isn’t easy, and every year there are mishaps.

But anglers need to be even more cautious this year. Far upstream, on Dec. 22, the country’s largest toxic sludge spill poured over a billion gallons of dangerous material into the Emory River which feeds the lake.

The sludge included heavy metals that will be found on the lake’s bottom for centuries. These will be stirred into movement for decades with every major increase in lake currents during flood seasons, and they will work themselves into the food chain. Arsenic was hundreds of times over safe levels in the river a few days after the accident, and mercury was also high.

Many studies show that the water leaching from ash ponds like the one that spilled into the Emory can not only decimate fish, bird and frog populations, but also contain chemicals that cause human birth defects and other health problems.

It was revealed at a hearing just last year that arsenic contamination in drinking water at levels caused by sludge spills could increase the probability of cancer several hundred times.

All Cumberland County residents, not just sportsmen, will be touched by the TVA disaster. TVA is presently spending over a million dollars a day on efforts at a limited cleanup, and will encounter far greater expenses when the hundreds of lawsuits resulting from their negligence are settled.

Unless Big Government comes to the rescue (in the form of stimulus funds or Superfund money), the expense will eventually be borne by the rate payers (YOU).

At least Cumberland County had the foresight to keep Emory River and Watts Bar water out of our water system, so we won’t experience increased public health risks…yet.

Believe it or not, there is a plan to pipe water up the hill from Harriman or Rockwood into our county. Apparently, a few stand to profit from an industrial development project, but they need more water. The residents of Westel are furious about the prospect of drinking water drawn so close to the toxic spill, but we all should understand that once this questionable water is pumped up the mountain, there will be relentless pressure to expand its distribution across the Plateau.

We are passing points of diminishing return.

TVA, and other power and coal companies, tried to save a few dollars by fighting federal and state pollution oversight for decades. TVA rejected dry storage methods for ash waste only a few years ago, and now all of us will pay a far higher price as a result.

Sacrificing the health of our sons and daughters on the altar of monetary greed is short-sighted, immoral, and stupid. It’s time to reorder our priorities.

• • •

This column represents alternative thoughts to other published columns in the Crossville Chronicle. "We the People" is published each Wednesday. Opinions expressed in "We the People" columns are not necessarily those of the Crossville Chronicle publisher, editor or staff. For more information, contact John Wund, editor, at jwund@frontiernet.net.