The coal industry is having a tough week. Yesterday, the environmental and human toll of mountaintop removal coal mining was the subject of a Senate hearing. Today, the DC government announced a $2,500 fine to anyone using coal tar in pavement projects. 

Staring Jul. 1, DC will no longer issue construction permits for roadway and driveway builds involving coal tar. It will also be illegal to sell the stuff. Coal tar has been used as a pavement sealer for many years but comes with some nasty environmental side effects. The District Department of the Environment says the ban seeks to prevent toxic chemicals from being carried along with rainwater into the Anacostia and Potomac rivers and Chesapeake Bay.

Of 85 unregulated and, in some cases, unknown chemicals found in samples of the Potomac prior to it becoming our drinking water, 35 were still in there after it was "purified" at the aqueduct. This tasty takeaway---plus: hermaphrofrogs!---comes from the latest Frontline on PBS, "Poisoned Waters," which examines both the Chesapeake Watershed and the Puget Sound. It was on last night and it's online. Happy Earth Day.

For a pilot about the FBI that may or may not get picked up for a show that stars someone who recently wrapped a miniseries shoot with Treat Williams, CBS Paramount plans to explode a boat in D.C.

Karyn LeBlanc, director of communications for the D.C. Dept. of Transpo, says the explosion will happen on the Potomac, just north of the Key Bridge and Jack's Boahouse (near K/Water streets under the Whitehurst Freeway) on Wednesday between 9:30 a.m. and noon. One of six sculls in the shot will be consumed in a fireball.

"NOTE," she writes, "it will NOT blow the boat into a million little pieces. Instead there will be a 20' to 30' high fire ball that will last approximately two (2) seconds. All material will be vaporized and there may be a small plume of smoke. The sound will be a low thud; not a loud bang."

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