Ash Spill IVC Collaboration with Community Members in East Tennessee
Freya Sachs' high school Environmental Perspectives class joined other classrooms around the country on January 28 for a presentation with Roan County High School students and community members who were affected by the now-infamous Emory River ash spill. The spill, occurring in December 2008, is described along with some of its thorny issues in this quote from knoxvillebiz.com:An estimated 1.1 billion gallons of water and ash burst from a failed retention pond for the TVA Kingston fossil plant near Harriman in the early morning of Dec. 22, 2008. Following the spill, TVA President and CEO Tom Kilgore said TVA was throwing all available resources at the problem and was in the process of beginning the reclamation phase of the cleanup operation. Meanwhile, nearby residents were left homeless and others fretted about the possible effects on their health. On July 28, 2009, the TVA inspector general wrote in a damning report that found TVA could have prevented the spill and limited the probe of its cause.
Members of the community were there, a representative from TVA gave a talk describing his organization's policy and responses, and the mayor made a little speech, then students from all participating sites were allowed to submit two questions apiece to any of the presenters. It was quite an interesting hour.
I invite students to comment here.Labels: ash spill, distance learning, interactive videoconferencing, IVC, tennessee, videoconference
posted by Scott Merrick @ 12:22 PM
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