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

Six generations of Jere McCraw’s family are buried on his 300-acre farm near Bridgeport, Ala. The land has been in his family since 1830, and he doesn’t want to sell it. But a Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) coal ash pond in nearby Widows Creek is threatening his land.

Last January, just one month after a coal ash pond at the TVA’s Kingston, Tenn., plant broke, sending a wave of toxic sludge on to 300 acres of neighboring property and waterways, contaminated water accidentally leaked from the Widows Creek plant. The TVA recalculated that pond’s rating as “high hazard” and spent $2 million to upgrade the ponds. The nation’s largest utility vowed to convert the ponds from wet to dry storage, considered a safer storage alternative. And, as a precaution, TVA also is buying property adjacent to the coal ash ponds where the leak occurred, land that is also adjacent to McCraw’s farm, property that is also historically significant as the site of the Civil War’s Battle of Bridgeport.

“We definitely don’t want to sell, but it’s scary for us,” McCraw says. “We fought the federal government on this land in the Civil War. I hope it doesn’t come to that again.”

Six weeks ago McCraw talked with officials from TVA and told them he was not interested in selling his land. He says he hasn’t heard from the utility since. But he fears the fight isn’t over. If the TVA doesn’t buy his land, what threat are he and his property under? Could contaminated water leak into the ground again? Could another spill like the one in Kingston occur on his land?

“I don’t know if it is dangerous or not, but we’ve asked and asked both TVA or ADEM (Alabama Department of Environmental Management) to check to see if there is a problem,” McCraw said.

Meanwhile, others in the area are not taking any chances. Darren McCloud readily sold 66 acres of his land just north of the Widows Creek ash ponds this summer to the TVA, and used the money to build a new home six miles away.

Sources:
Times Free Press
Gadsden Times

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 at 10:08 am 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.