The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org. January 5, 2009 Coal Ash Disaster: Test Show Arsenic at 300x Normal Level in Water ------------------------------------------------------------------ In Tennessee, new tests have revealed high levels of arsenic in the water near last month’s massive coal ash spill. Independent tests found the arsenic level to be as much as 300 times higher than drinking water limits. Two weeks ago, the walls of a retention pond holding the coal ash crumbled. Over one billion gallons of toxic coal ash spilled out covering homes and roads. The Knoxville News Sentinel reports the Tennessee Valley Authority had known about problems in the retention pond for more than two decades but opted not to pay for long-term solutions to the problem. .