Green Options

The Maryland Department of the Environment is reporting a coal ash spill, this time on the Potomac River.

[Creative Commons photo by Mikko Itälahti]

How many spills does this make in the past few months alone? There was the devastating TVA spill in Tennessee, the January spill in Alabama, and now this. Three spills in three months is a pretty terrible track record that underscores our need to move beyond coal as a primary fuel source.

The Maryland Department of the Environment press release said:

The U.S. Geological Survey says it’s getting closer to understanding why so many male smallmouth bass in the Potomoc River basin show female egg cells in their testes. The phenomenon is greatest in areas with the highest concentration of people and intensive agricultural development. Researchers are checking if hormones in wastewater and endocrine-disrupting chemicals in farm run-off are to blame.

Image courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service [...]