For whatever reason if the public interest in this spill has generated so much buzz lets pile on with some more spectacular sludge spills and Mountain Top Removal. The Buffalo Creek disaster that killed 125 people in the early 70's should be revisited since the media from the time could not do that sludge pond failure justice. The large Martin County Ky. Spill was 40 times larger than the Exxon Valdez spill and it never received the media attention it deserved either.

    The point I am trying to make is that this was not an isolated incident and we have smaller spills polluting streams all the time. Some are released intentionally on the night shift into streams and rivers so as to escape detection. It is easier to just release some sludge than have to build a new pond or modify an old one.

The eons of time and nature was good to us down here. It was not until we become civilized that destroying our habitat become fathomable or fashionable.

2,280,000 vs. 1,740,000 vs. 708,000...

At the time of Three Mile Island, the Valdez, how many blogs were there?  How many discussion forums?  How many newspapers posted on line?

Pompey Road
You must be referring to the 300 million gallon coal sludge spill in 2000 by a subsidiary of Massey Energy.  The one the EPA called the worst environmental disaster in the history of the southeast U.S. It contaminated drinking water for 27,000 people, spreading 75 miles to the Ohio River.  
 The coal industry practically single handedly won West Virgina for George Bush that year with massive campaign donations, in an upset victory.

After the 300 billion gallon spill:
There was an investigation by MSHA that was squelched after Bush's election. The investigators were ready to proceed with 8 serious violations, with possible criminal charges. The lead investigator was reassigned, and demoted then fired.
He was replaced with another, who on the first day said he would close the investigation within a week. He later got a seat on the board of directors of Massey Energy.

Massey Energy got off with a $55,000 fine.

The Massey CEO, Blankenship,  described his critics as "communists," "atheists," and "greeniacs
and "our enemies like Osama bin Laden"

He's presumably bought off judges to side with Massey on fines for violations. Like a $77million decision that was reversed in 2008

Massey Energy violated the Clean Water Act 4500 times between 2000 and 2007

Why on Earth did they allow coal ask and slurry bottoms to be mixed in holding ponds in the first place? That's just nuts. Coal ash does have some beneficial uses, such as blending with cement to form concrete - or it should be put into waste cells not unlike certified landfill. I don't get it.

The analysis of the ash and environmental samples seems to be very weak so far, too. Coal ash not only contains some arsenic but other bad actors such as selenium and trace toxics but is also quite radioactive. I don't know about the particular coal blend they're using at the TVA facilities but there are at least 30 bad actors in coal ash that we know about.

Even more troubling, the TVA - a quasi governmental agency - tried to whitewash its impacts as to (1) acres of contamination, (2) volume of release, and (3) effects on local residents and the groundwater. That's just plain pure despicable. Heads should roll over this one.

Onward through the fog