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

A new federal survey reports that 34 coal ash impoundment ponds at U.S. coal burning utilities have spilled their toxic contents in the past decade, according to the Associated Press. Many of the spills were minor compared to last December’s tragic spill at an east Tennessee plant that dumped more than a billion gallons of coal ash sludge on to 300 acres of a neighboring community, knocked homes from their foundations, destroyed property, and contaminated nearby waterways. That spill at a Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) plant spurred the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to survey all coal-burning sites in the country, sites that are not regulated by the federal government.

Read the rest of this entry »

Indiana and Kentucky have the most coal ash ponds in the country and many of those ponds have numerous deficiencies and were built without trained engineers, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA conducted the survey on the nation’s coal ash ponds following last December’s massive spill in which a coal ash impoundment pond at a Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) coal-firing plant in east Tennessee broke, sending 1.1 gallons of toxic sludge onto 300 acres of a neighboring community. The coal ash destroyed homes, damaged property and contaminated nearby waterways, and is being blamed for making many locals sick.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), facing a near-$1 billion bill for the cleanup of a massive coal ash spill at its Kingston, Tenn., coal-firing plant, a pension shortfall, waning power sales, and court-ordered environmental upgrades, says it will increase electric rates, borrow up to $3 billion over three years, and cut spending in order to pay its due.

Read the rest of this entry »

Coal ash recovered from an east Tennessee community where the toxic material spilled after an impoundment pond breached at the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) coal-firing plant in Kingston, Tenn., is already being shipped to landfills in other states, creating jobs and bringing money to impoverished counties, but residents of an Alabama community receiving the shipments aren’t pleased.

Read the rest of this entry »