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

Cumberland County, Tennessee, officials saw dollar signs and improved highways when they approved the relocation of coal ash recovered from a neighboring spill site to a landfill atop Smith Mountain. “I call it the Good Neighbor Plan,” says Commissioner Lynn Tollett. “We’ve got a place to put (the recovered coal ash). We can help out and we’re going to gain some income at a time when the economy is not what it ought to be.”

The county will reap about $8 million over three years from fees. The project will also help improve the mine where the coal ash will be stored and bring road improvements so that covered trucks can haul the coal ash up the mountain to the landfill. What could be wrong with such a plan?

Plenty, say residents who live near the landfill. “I’ve been here for about three years. It’s just a beautiful place. It’s waterfalls, ponds, nature,” says David Brundage, owner of Black Cat Lodge, a rehabilitation escape for people recovering from drug and alcohol addictions. “My concern is everything I’ve built, everything I have here is going to be gone.”

It’s a valid concern. People who lived in the east Tennessee community of Kingston know far too well what can happen in a worse-case scenario. Residents there lost homes and property when 1.1 billion gallons of toxic coal ash tumbled from an impoundment pond from the nearby Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) coal-burning site. The December 2008 tragedy is listed as the largest environmental disaster of its kind in U.S. history. In an effort to restore the land, TVA is undergoing a three-year, $1 billion cleanup of the land. As part of the cleanup, gallons of recovered coal ash are being shipped via train car to a landfill in Perry County, Alabama, for storage, a move that is winning more support from Perry County officials than from the residents who live there.

Once the Alabama landfill is filled to its brim, TVA officials plan to load up covered trucks and move the toxic coal ash to neighboring Cumberland County, atop Smith Mountain. Which begs the question: how do you define a good neighbor?

Source: News Channel 5

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 at 1:07 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.