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

Residents of east Tennessee affected by last December’s coal ash spill are still reeling six months after the toxic sludge poured down on their community, changing their lives forever. They expressed their anger at a meeting this week with Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) officials at Roane State Community College.

The comments from community members were telling:

“TVA says I’m not affected, I’ve never been so affected by anything in my life,” one concerned citizen says. “How are you going to make me whole again?”

“I generally don’t come to these meetings because I get really upset because I don’t believe anything they say,” says another resident.

“We’re still in the dark, everybody’s in the dark, nobody knows what’s going on,” says a third.

Gil Francis, a spokesman with TVA, says the agency is making progress in its cleanup of the area but there is still a lot of work yet to do. The massive cleanup is expected to ring in at more than $975 million, and there is no word when the cleanup will be complete. Some say the damage is too complex to be remedied by removing and relocating the spilled coal ash. Coal ash contains dangerous toxins that can cause serious health problems to humans. It’s toll on wildlife and plant life in the area is anyone’s guess. It already has severely affected the recreational activities that used to flourish in nearby waterways. Those rivers are now posted with warnings of contamination from the spill.

Still, packing up and leaving isn’t necessarily an option for some residents affected by the spill. “I don’t know if it can be made right. I don’t want to move, I love our place,” one resident says.

Source: WTVC NewsChannel 9

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