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

The residents of Perry County, Ala., were just gearing up to file a lawsuit against Arrowhead Landfill. The landfill had entered into an agreement with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to accept coal ash recovered from the east Tennessee spill site, generating millions of dollars and a handful of jobs for the very poor, predominantly black community. But residents argued that the benefits came at too high a price. Coal ash is toxic, containing arsenic and carcinogens that have been linked to serious health problems. To make matters worse, the constant trainload deliveries of coal ash to the landfill were literally stinking up the town.

Read the rest of this entry »

If the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules that coal ash waste from utility plants should be classified as a hazardous material, the ripple effect could hit Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) customers right in the wallet.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is hosting a symposium March 11-12 on fly ash research as part of its response to last year’s catastrophic spill at its Kingston Fossil Plant. The event will be coordinated by Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) and held at Roane State Community College in Harriman. Registration is $50.

Read the rest of this entry »

Ms. Ruby’s smile is infectious, but it is tinged with concern. At 80, she has lived in Perry County, Ala., all her life. But what has happened there these past few months has made her fear for her health.

Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve all been told that eating fruits and vegetables can make us healthier. But some crops could make us sick. It’s the fertilizer that’s to blame. Farmers are being encouraged by the U.S. government to dust their fields with waste from coal-firing facilities. It’s a win-win situation, says the government. Coal ash helps loosen and fertilize soil for the farmers, and it helps reduce a waste disposal issue for the coal-firing plants.

That coal ash is a synthetic form of the mineral gypsum, produced by power plant “scrubbers” that remove sulfur dioxide from the smoke stack emissions. The chalky substance also contains mercury, arsenic, lead and other heavy metals that have been linked to serious health problems, like cancer, liver damage and neurological complications.

Read the rest of this entry »

As the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ponders how waste from coal-firing plants should be classified, the debate on how best to regulate the toxic material heats up. Here is one more view on The Coal Ash Case, from The New York Times.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is facing 57 lawsuits from more than 560 plaintiffs over the December 2008 coal ash spill that dumped more than a billion gallons of toxic material on to 300 acres of a neighboring community. The spill destroyed homes, damaged property and contaminated the nearby Emory River. Several residents have complained of headaches, nosebleeds, breathing problems and heightened anxiety as a result of living near the spill site. Attorneys with Beasley Allen Law Firm are among those who filed have filed lawsuits on behalf of residents affected by the catastrophic spill.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is enjoying record-breaking sales of its energy, setting records in demand for the 7-day period that ended Sunday. Total weekly energy use throughout the TVA’s 7-state region was more than 200 gigawatt hours higher than the previous record, set August 12, 2007. Total weekly energy use was recorded at 4.633 gigawatt hours, another record for the nation’s largest utility. TVA serves more than 9 million customers in Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.

Read the rest of this entry »

Bruce Duncan’s family lives just three miles from where more than a billion gallons of toxic coal ash spilled from an impoundment pond at the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) coal-firing plant. They watch trucks loaded with recovered coal ash pass by their house every day en route to other landfills specially equipped to store the toxic waste. The Duncans would like to move away to a safer environment, like many in the area have. Living so close to the cleanup has made them ill. They have frequent nosebleeds, frontal headaches, increased shortness of breath, wheezing, asthma exacerbation and increased chest pain. Their doctor also warned them not to drink the water. But unlike some residents in the area, the TVA hasn’t offered to help the Duncans, and they simply cannot afford to buy another home, especially when their current home has lost value since the spill.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) may be delayed in proposing new regulations for storage of toxic coal ash, but one item expected to be on the agency’s proposal is gaining applause from conservation groups. The EPA says its plan includes a requirement for coal-firing plants to set aside money that would be used in the event of future toxic waste problems, such as spills or leaks like the one from the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) plant in December 2008 that devastated a neighboring east Tennessee community.

Read the rest of this entry »