Sludge flowed from a broken levee and flooded hundreds of acres in Tennessee this past week. The sludge was a waste product from a coal-burning power plant, known as fly ash, mixed with water in a retention pond that flowed through backyards and caused three homes to be condemned. The incident has caused the word “sludge” to be used on the 24-hour-news networks literally thousands of times in the past week, although I have yet to hear Anderson Cooper refer to the disaster as “sludgy”. We at Sludgie acknowledge that an ecological disaster is a rather ironic way to publicize this website, and having several tons of factory waste flood your home is a form of advertising that’s even more annoying than pop-up ads, but the TVA did not consult us before launching the promotion.

"They're giving their apologies, which don't mean very much," said Holly Schean, a waitress whose home had been swept off its foundation by the landslide of muck. She added that while she was pleased to learn about the website, she wishes that if they’d gone to this much trouble I would post entries a little more often.

Massive Coal-ash Spill Causes River of Sludge and Controversy (Seattle Times)