Coal at work - a billion + gallons of sludge

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/12/26/tennessee.sludge/index.html

"Tennessee sludge spill estimate grows to 1 billion gallons

(CNN) -- Estimates for the amount of thick sludge that gushed from a Tennessee coal plant this week have tripled to more than a billion gallons, as cleanup crews try to remove the goop from homes and railroads and halt its oozing into an adjacent river.

TVA officials originally said the cleanup would take four to six weeks. Now they say they aren't sure.

The sludge, a byproduct of the ash from coal combustion, was contained at a retention site at the Tennessee Valley Authority's power plant in Kingston, about 40 miles east of Knoxville. The retention wall breached early Monday, sending the sludge downhill and damaging 15 homes. All the residents were evacuated, and three homes were deemed uninhabitable, according to the TVA.

TVA's initial estimate for the spill was 1.8 million cubic yards or more than 360 million gallons of sludge. By Friday, the estimate reached 5.4 million cubic yards or more than 1 billion gallons -- enough to fill 1,660 Olympic-size swimming pools"

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This is one cubic yard




TVA's initial estimate for the spill was 1.8 million cubic yards or more than
360 million gallons of sludge. By Friday, the estimate reached 5.4 million
cubic yards or more than 1 billion gallons -- enough to fill 1,660 Olympic-
size swimming pools.