Another example of the risk in private companies owning and operating our natural resources.

Environmental Accident Occurs Tuesday Morning, April 5, in Tennessee.

1.2 to 3.2 million gallons of storm and sewage water, apparently without solid waste, has surged out a sewage holding tank attached to a sewage treatment plant located in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. The tank collapsed early Tuesday morning. The tank and the entire sewage treatment plant is operated by Chicago-based Veolia Water, a for-profit water management firm.
The holding tank is 70 feet wide, 40 feet high, and has 12-inch reinforced concrete walls. A photo shows a section of the walls that has been blown out. Two workers at the plant are missing and a search for them is underway. The sewage is flowing directly into Gatlinburg which is the main entrance to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
More than 2.62 inches of rain fell in the national park in the 24 hours prior to the breach Tuesday morning. Personnel from the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, and the National Park Service are on the scene.
Note: The content of this news brief comes from a report from the Associated Press found on the newspage for Earthlink, Inc., on April 5, 2011. The words and sentences have been paraphrased by this blog writer but all credit goes to the Associated Press.

Commentary 

Unfortunately, this is yet another environmental disaster to afflict Tennessee in the last 18 months or so, and like the previous disaster having to do with the breeching of a giant coal sludge retention pond, this disaster also has to do with a retention pond, this time retaining, or supposed to be retaining, excess sewage water prior to it being transferred to the treatment plant. From what I recall, the giant coal sludge pond was managed by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), the huge, quasi-governmental agency created back in the 1930s for the purpose of bringing electricity for the first time to the isolated, rural communities of Tennessee. The sewage plant involved in this present disaster is managed by Veolia Water. Veolia Water has been granted long-term management leases of several water districts in the U.S., including here in the State of Illinois, if I am not mistaken. It is companies like these who are pushing mightily to be granted long-term management rights to the water supplies of cities nationwide, including cities like Chicago, my home city. These companies are also pushing to be granted  monopolistic, ownership rights to our nation's rivers and streams, all with the promise that they can deliver water service more efficiently, at a better price, and at equal levels, if not higher, of safety.
Oh really? From what I've read, many of the towns and counties that have turned their water departments to Veolia and other such firms are now desperately looking for ways to get out of their contracts seeing that the prices for delivery have gone up as high as seven times, and the quality and reliability of the service has notably declined. Our outgoing mayor, Richard M. Daley, has said on several occasions how he's been seriously considering outsourcing the drinking water of our city. Our incoming mayor, Rahm Emmanuel, has been rather vague and inconsistent on this proposal, at one time saying he definitely would not consider outsourcing any more of our city's public assets, and at other times saying that he would look into such possibilities.
Outrageous. If the events at this Tennessee sewage plant are any indication of the reliability and efficiency that for-profit firms are promising in return for taking over public natural resources, and then take into account the history so far of their other water management deals, I say the ideas and proposals to continue with this short-sighted, indeed blind, way of executing the public's business is a definite NO. If these companies succeed in obtaining more such contracts, which is fairly likely, it seems, then you and I can look forward to many more spills, breeches, water contaminations, etc., like we're seeing today in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Think about it. If you agree with me, then stand up and  voice your concern. Say NO WAY to further privatization of our natural resources, and public assets of any type.
Thanks!