(The Sunshine Coast, near Brisbane, on 13 Mar 2009, after a ship lost a mere 30 to 100 tonnes of fuel).

New Zealand is a tiny island country with an extraordinarily beautiful, clean and – for the most part – green landscape. For a country of less than 270,000 square kilometres, about the size of Colorado, New Zealand’s coastline runs 15,134 kilometres with some of the most pristine, bountiful and species diverse waters in the world, and relies heavily on the marine environment for commercial operations. It is one of the major draws for fishermen, for scientists, and for tourists unparalleled anywhere.

One of New Zealand’s most beautiful virgin rainforests is the Raukumara Forest Park, a 225 hectare scenic reserve with bush, streams, waterfalls, between the Bay of Plenty and the East Cape, on the east coast of the North Island. The Motu and Raukokore river systems flow into the Bay of Plenty, renowned as a surfer’s paradise, and dotted with tranquil bays with pohutukawa trees on beaches of flawless caramel sands. James Cook came ashore here in 1769, and ancient Maori sites confer a native spiritual connection to the land and the shore. It is a gem in New Zealand’s ecological crown.

And on the first of June, Prime Minister John Key’s government announced that the Brazilian Petrobras, one of the world's largest oil companies, has been given permission to drill for oil and gas in more than 12,000 square kilometres out of 25,000 of the Raukumara Basin area. Key’s rightwing National government has actively pursued oil companies over the last 18 months, and is publically delighted to have enticed Petrobas International Braspetro B.V., owned by Brazilian company Petroleo Brasileiro S.A, with annual revenues of US$118.3 billion, one of the biggest players in the global oil and gas industry.

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Well, my goodness. It looks as though the people in the path of that massive ash spill are going to be, um, immunologically challenged!

Yes, despite offical assurances, it turns out there's all kinds of nasty stuff in the sludge. And surprise, surprise - the EPA knew, because they'd already released a study:

The risk assessment examined 181 coal combustion waste disposal sites throughout the country and found that unlined coal ash waste ponds pose a cancer risk 900 times above what the government considers "acceptable." The report also found that coal ash disposal sites release toxic chemicals and metals such as arsenic, lead, boron, selenium, cadmium, thallium, and other pollutants at levels that endanger human health and the environment.

"Clean" coal, huh?

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The environmental disaster first disclosed a few days ago is growing much bigger than authorities described:

A coal ash spill in eastern Tennessee that experts were already calling the largest environmental disaster of its kind in the United States is more than three times larger than initially estimated, according to an updated survey by the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Officials at the authority initially said that about 1.7 million cubic yards of wet coal ash had spilled when the earthen retaining wall of an ash pond at the Kingston Fossil Plant, about 40 miles west of Knoxville, gave way on Monday. But on Thursday they released the results of an aerial survey that showed the actual amount was 5.4 million cubic yards, or enough to flood more than 3,000 acres one foot deep.

The amount now said to have been spilled is larger than the amount the authority initially said was in the pond, 2.6 million cubic yards.

But don't worry, we don't know for sure that it will kill the victims:

Mr. Moulton said on Friday that the levels exceeded safety limits for drinking water, but that both metals were filtered out by water treatment processes.

Mercury and arsenic, he said, were “barely detectable” in the samples.

The ash pond was adjacent to the Emory River and near a residential area, where three houses were destroyed by the tide of muddy ash. Water sampled several miles downstream from the spill was safe to drink, but its iron and manganese content exceeded the secondary drinking water standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency, which govern taste and odor but not potential health effects, Mr. Moulton said.

Neither the authority nor the E.P.A. has released the results of tests of soil or the ash itself. Authority officials have said that the ash is not harmful, and the authority has not warned residents of potential dangers, though federal studies show that coal ash can contain dangerous levels of heavy metals and carcinogens.

“You’re not going to be endangered by touching the ash material,” said Barbara Martocci, a spokeswoman for the T.V.A. “You’d have to eat it. You have to get it in your body.”

The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation also released a statement saying there was no indication of risk unless the ash was ingested.

"Ingested." You mean, as in "inhaled"? Because it seems to me it will be almost impossible for residents to avoid breathing it in. Oh well. Thanks, BushCo!

I hope the new Democratic Congress and the corporate media continue to do their bit for more "clean coal"!