Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) will host a community open house in Harriman, Tennessee, today to answer questions about the utility’s cleanup efforts and testing on air, water and soil in the area. The community open house is the second forum hosted by the TVA in an effort to keep those in the area apprised of the utility’s efforts to “right” the environmental “wrong” created when its Kingston, Tennessee coal ash impoundment pond failed late last year and poured more than a billion gallons of coal ash sludge on to 300 acres of property in a rural Tennessee community. Coal ash contains toxins such as arsenic and lead which can be hazardous to human health.

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More than two dozen residents of the east Tennessee community affected by the December 2008 coal ash spill are asking a federal judge to halt the Tennessee Valley Authority’s cleanup efforts until more environmental studies and oversight have been performed, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel. Residents of the area are concerned the TVA is “recklessly forging ahead with a cleanup plan” that will cause the 300 acres of rural property to “sustain even greater environmental damage from preventable contamination, exposure and migration of coal ash through air, land and water.”

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The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is facing a new round of headaches since its coal ash impoundment failed last December and dumped a billion gallons of toxic coal ash on to an east Tennessee neighborhood. Now it is facing the wrath of the magistrate judge in the case, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel.

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The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has paid east Tennessee home and landowners more than $9.5 million to compensate them for damages after the utility’s Kingston, Tennessee coal ash impoundment failed late last year and poured more than a billion gallons of toxic coal ash sludge on to a rural community, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel.

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The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has begun dredging coal ash from the Emory River as part of its $1 million-a-day cleanup effort following the massive coal ash spill from a damaged impoundment pond last December. The first hydraulic dredge began sucking the ash out of the river last week. Where they will send it is still anyone’s guess as the TVA and environmental regulators consider their options.

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Sen. Benjamin Cardin of Maryland is asking the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to review, inspect and regulate coal ash impoundments from all coal-burning plants in the country, instead of just those run by utilities. Cardin’s request is fueled by last week’s coal ash leak at New Page Corporation, a Maryland paper mill, that spilled 4,000 gallons of toxic coal ash into the Potomac River.

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President Obama’s new energy policies are pitting mining companies and environmentalists against each other as the federal government explores new ways of storing carbon emissions. Mining companies and the lawmakers who support them say that establishing these new measures could cost billions while environmentalists say the price is not important in comparison to the ecological damage of continuing common practices.

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Southern California community members worried about the ill effects from coal-burning mines and power plants are conducting a 100-day national campaign uniting 100 communities in the area urging lawmakers to phase out of coal-based energy and transition to cleaner, renewable sources that would produce more green jobs, according to the Palm Springs (California) My Desert.

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Washington lawmakers are now more in touch with the coal ash spill travesty that dumped more than a billion gallons of toxic material on to 300 acres of residential property in east Tennessee last December. Sunday night, a pipeline at a Maryland coal-burning power plant ruptured and leaked about 4,000 gallons of coal ash sludge into the Potomac River, according to the Boston Herald.

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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has promised to make good on a promise it made nine years ago to issue regulations for coal ash storage. The announcement comes more than two months after a Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) impoundment pond failed and dumped more than a billion gallons of toxic coal ash on to 300 acres of east Tennessee property, destroying homes and damaging land in its wake.

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