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

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has agreed to spend $43 million on projects to improve Roane County, Tenn., the area that was devastated both physically and from a public relations standpoint when the TVA’s Kingston plant’s coal ash pond breached, sending a 1.1 billion gallon wave of toxic material on to 300 acres of a local community.

The spill, one of the largest environmental disasters in our country’s history, knocked houses from their foundations, damaged property, and contaminated nearby waterways, hindering water recreation activities in the area and diminishing nearby property values. While the TVA is engaged in what will amount to a near-$1 billion cleanup of the damaged land, plus a litany of lawsuits related to the spill, Roane County officials say that the city’s public image has also been scarred and the TVA needs to pony up the funds to help restore it.

The TVA had said it would help compensate the city and county and considered two different proposals submitted by local governments. One proposal asked for $40 million to cover upgrades to water lines, sewer lines and schools as well as the construction of nature trails and a hefty public relations campaign.

“That bell has been rung and you can’t unring it,” said Mayor Troy Beets of Kingston to the New York Times. “We can’t unring the fact that we had the ash spill on Dec. 22; we can’t unring all the negative publicity that came out about it. You try to ring some more bells, just as loudly, that are positive.”

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