[Coach_Owens87]

Why Coach I'm surprised........you know me and you know the spin stops here! lol

Let's keep this in perspective, remember this was a ash retention pond or if you prefer a dike which was located at the power plant, and is unlike slurry impoundments which require stricter design, construction and inspection guidelines. Unless these ash retention ponds are built on a active mining operation, they are not covered by those standards. Regulation of these ash ponds have been left to state agencies, where standards can vary wdely from state to state.

According to a fact sheet released by TVA the State of Tennessee inspects these ponds quarterly in coordination with the permitting process. Each plant does a visual inspection daily. Plant personnel conduct seep inspection of the dikes quarterly. Detailed inspections of the ash handling and storage dikes are done annually by TVA engineering staff.

I dont know how I didn't keep it in perspective, I mentioned in the first post that this was a ash pond, and not a coal sludge pond.

From what I have read, the construction of this pond, and the slurry ponds here are very similar, and have similar safety guidelines. Supposedly they are over designed to handle a massive amount of precipitation in a short period of time, but as this shows, thats not always the case.