NE Will Spread 86 Tons Of Coal Ash On Platte River Ice To Speed Breakup, Avoid Floods

[hatrack]

:banghead:

For only the fourth time in about three decades, the state will scatter coal ash over the Platte River with hopes of reducing the threat of ice jams and flooding. Al Berndt, assistant director of the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency, said Tuesday that officials are worried by the unsually deep and widespread snowpack in northeast Nebraska and stubbornly thick ice on the river

A crop duster will drop about 86 tons of ash over about 10 spots along the river on Thursday, Berndt said. The ash comes from the Nebraska Public Power District coal plant near Hallam.

The hope is that the dark ash will absorb the sun's energy and help “rot” the ice so it breaks up into smaller chunks and washes downstream, Berndt said. Larger ice chunks can jam together like a dam and send floodwaters washing over levees. Success is not guaranteed. But there are no other preventive steps officials can take.

EDIT

The cost of the dusting is expected to be less than $100,000 Berndt said. Petermann, who has spent much of his 35-year career watching the river, said it's money well spent. “Boy, anything we can do to help prevent flooding and save millions of dollars and potentially lives, it's a small investment.”

EDIT/END

http://www.omaha.com/article/20100217/NEWS01/702179923

[joeybee12]

1. Yup, they grow 'em stupid in Nebraska....n/t

[tabatha]

2. Nothing to say but

:wtf: :banghead: :wtf: :banghead: :wtf: :banghead:

[postulater]

3. Oh, yeah, that'll be really good for the fish.

insert dork smiley.

[TheWraith]

4. And some DUers wonder why we need to replace coal power IMMEDIATELY.

Coal is concentrated death. It's lethal in every part of it's use cycle.

If you must engage in ecological engineering like this, use POWDERED CHARCOAL. That, at least, is mostly just proper carbon and doesn't include the toxins coal byproducts do.

[Dead_Parrot]

5. I love the smell of stupid in the morning

Maybe could flick them the report on the TVA spill. Of course, I'm assuming they can read...

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

6. Is coal ash as nutrient rich as forest ash?

When forest fires happen, the nutrient rich ash spurs growth and is very healthy for seedlings and plants - which in turn greatly benefits wildlife. Will the coal ash have this same effect once the ash is distributed along the banks and river bottom?

If so, I suppose I have little problem with this.
More than likely though, there's a ridiculous amount of heavy metal and poisonous contaminants in powerplant coal ash.

[Dead_Parrot]

8. No, it's full of shit

See http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x232302

[NickB79]

9. Even if it were as nutrient-rich as forest ash (which it's not), it would still be a disaster

Nutrient-rich fertilizer run-off absolutely destroys lakes and rivers due to eutrophication. The excess nitrogen and phosphorus promote algal growth, which smothers aquatic life. When the algae dies and rots, the decomposition removes oxygen from the water, killing even more aquatic life.

For an excellent example of this phenomenon, read up on the Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico, which appears to be caused by excess farm fertilizer run-off.

[Statistical]

13. Only if you think mercury, radioactive isotopes, arsenic, barium, lead, and more

Coal ash is death just like coal plants are death.

Pure coal would be bad enough as it is. It produces large amount of CO2 per unit of energy. The real problem is coal is not pure what is burned in plants would be best described as "mostly coal". There is no refining. They take a chunk of mostly coal out of the earth and burn it so as a result there is quite a bit of "non coal" burned to. Substantial amounts of Arsenic, barium, chromium, copper, lead, manganese, mercury, nickel, vanadium and zinc. Throw in some uranium and thorium and other isotopes and you have a lot of bad "non coal" going into fly ash (and into atmosphere).

It isn't just one killer it is a nice concentrated packages of dozens of poisons like a death cocktail.

Of course it is free for anyone who wants to use it since coal plants produce billions of tons of it each year and have no place to put it. They built a golf-course out of fly-ash here in VA, saved the developer millions. I mean real dirt is expensive and coal plants will pay you to take this filth off their hands. They had put in a a liner but the liner leaked and now rainwater is filtering through this toxic death and washing all that into the water supply.

Yummy!

[phantom power]

7. please kill me

[Nihil]

11. Be patient: Nebraska officials are working on it!

:wtf:

Could anyone please print out a f*cking big image from the other
coal ash article (http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x232302)
and nail it to the head of this council of dipsticks?

[AtheistCrusader]

10. I see the 'Swords into Plowshares' movement is alive and well.

Even after that failed attempt to demonstrate building a canal with small nuclear bombs.

[hatrack]

15. Check out "The Firecracker Boys", if you haven't read it already

"Operation Chariot" - another great moment in American technological history, when we came pretty close to blowing a gigantic hole in the coast of Alaska to show that we could use nuclear weapons to build harbors.

[depakid]

12. And the feds can't do anything to prevent this insanity?

:shrug:

[Statistical]

14. The feds support "clean coal". Well this is a byproduct of "clean" coal.

See it is recycling too so it is double-plus good.

[depakid]

17. Looked into this a little further and it turns out that the EPA doesn't consider it "that toxic"

and besides, it'll be diluted in the river.

So that- and the fear of floods justifies dumping filth into the water supply.

(meanwhile, EPA is working up its own rule on disposal of coal ash- with the major focus being on how to keep it out of watersheds.

:crazy:

[progressoid]

16. Plan B: Dynamite.

"The conditions probably look worse than they have for a number of years as far as the potential (for ice jams). We'll see what Mother Nature delivers," said Marlin Petermann of the Papio-Missouri River Natural Resources District based in Omaha.

Petermann and others are concerned a sudden thaw in late February or early March will melt the snow and the ensuing runoff will swell the river and break up the ice too quickly, creating the potential for massive jams.

In the past, some jams stretched for miles, causing flooding in low areas. In 1993, for instance, a 6-mile-long jam forced the river through Lincoln's well fields near Ashland, jeopardizing the city's drinking water supply.

...

A dynamiting company, which is on a retainer, has been notified its services might be needed to break ice jams if conditions worsen, Petermann said.

Petermann said they would prefer not to use dynamite - first used on the Lower Platte in 1997 - because it costs at least $50,000 per day.

"It's a last-resort measure, and we don't want to do that," he said.

"We had them on high alert," Petermann said. "Hopefully, we can escape another year."

Before dynamite is used, agencies will try dusting problem areas with coal ash, which can hasten melting. That technique has been used in the past with limited success. The state Emergency Management Agency is getting necessary environmental permits in anticipation of doing such work.

http://www.journalstar.com/news/local/article_550ea7ca-fd8d-11de-80bf-001cc4c002e0.html

?_dc=1263089851