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CNN 5 Things

Sunday Edition: Gambling ‘America’s Amazon’

CNN 5 Things

CNN

News, Daily News

3.71.3K Ratings

🗓️ 12 December 2021

⏱️ 12 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In 2008, a coal ash spill in Kingston, Tennessee blanketed hundreds of acres in toxic sludge, causing more than $1 billion in damage. Now, a CNN investigation found that an even larger coal ash pond in Alabama is already seeping into the groundwater, threatening an ecosystem some environmentalists call ‘America’s Amazon.’ Guest: Isabelle Chapman, CNN Investigates reporter Read more about this story here. To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Spark your creativity with the Sims. Sometimes you might feel like you're not creative

0:07.0

and you have to go in search of your creative spark again. Maybe this is catching up with creative

0:11.9

friends, experimenting with a new look or trying out a new recipe.

0:16.0

And thanks to The Sims, inspiration is just one game and one spark away.

0:21.0

Ready to spark something? Download the Sims 4 and play for free.

0:27.0

Welcome to the Sunday edition of CNN Five Things, I'm David Rind. And today I'm here with

0:34.5

CNN's Isabel Chapman from our investigations team. Hi Isabel.

0:38.0

Hi Isabel. Hi, thanks for having me. So you recently came to us with a big environmental story that I know you've been working on for quite a while now.

0:47.0

So where does it start?

0:50.0

This story starts in December 2008 when there was a coal ash spill at a power plant near Kingston, Tennessee.

0:57.0

Tennessee residents are watching their homes literally drown in a sea of sludge after a...

1:01.0

It was an environmental catastrophe. It killed fish, it affected the river nearby.

1:07.4

A tidal wave of water and coal ash burst out of the plant's retention pond, cascading sludge onto 300 acres of surrounding land and waterways.

1:17.0

There's an iconic photo that people may remember seeing of a white house buried in coal ash.

1:22.0

What goes to your head?

1:24.0

Depression, really.

1:27.0

I mean, it's so sad because it was so pretty here.

1:29.0

It was a billion dollar cleanup.

1:30.0

It took years. So I guess that leads me to ask what is coal ash and why did

1:40.5

it cause such a disaster? Right, so most people have probably never heard of coal ash, but it's what's left over when we burn coal.

1:49.0

It's the residue and it's toxic.

1:51.0

So after this Kingston spell, the feeling inside the EPA based on the

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