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

Plaintiffs in three class action lawsuits have joined forces to fight the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and two of its consultants for compensation to cover unspecified damages and payment for medical monitoring as a result of the December 2008 coal ash spill from the TVA’s Kingston Fossil Plant in east Tennessee. The amended complaint redefines the class of potential plaintiffs, which includes anyone who owns property in the Swan Pond community around the plant north of the Clinch River, anyone who lived in the same area when the spill occurred, and anyone who owns property on Watts Bar Lake from the mouth of the Emory River to Watts Bar Dam. Attorneys say the classification could add hundreds more plaintiffs to the lawsuit.

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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.

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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.

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Last year, when a coal ash impoundment pond at the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) fossil fuel plant in east Tennessee breached, sending a wave of toxic material on to a neighboring rural community, the event made headlines worldwide as one of the largest environmental disasters in U.S. history. It also landed in the No. 1 spot on EarthFirst.com’s “America’s Top 10 Worst Man-Made Environmental Disasters”.

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Environmental lawsuits can be complex and take years to resolve because the damages may take decades to surface, says Gregory Button, a University of Tennessee anthropologist who studies environmental disasters such as the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. That means the fallout from last year’s Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) coal ash spill that blanketed a neighboring community with toxic material in what some call the nation’s largest environmental disaster of its kind, could linger for years.

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Coal ash produced and stored by fossil fuel plants kills fish and other wildlife, damages their reproductive capacity, and contaminates wells, according to a report released this week by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The 230-page report culminates months of research triggered by last year’s massive coal ash spill from the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston, Tenn., plant. That spill dumped more than a billion gallons of toxic material onto a neighboring community where it knocked houses from their foundations, damaged property and contaminated nearby waterways.

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The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is shelling out billions of dollars as a result of the massive coal ash spill from its Kingston, Tenn., fossil fuel plant that dumped more than a billion gallons of toxic sludge on to a neighboring community. But the nation’s largest utility is hoping a federal district court judge will grant it immunity from mounting lawsuits filed by property owners injured by the spill – a move that would leave those victims footing the bill for their own losses.

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Hundreds of lawsuits have been filed by individuals against the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) following a massive coal ash spill from its Kingston, Tennessee coal firing plant. Now a business is seeking justice, according to KnoxvilleBiz.com.

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The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) tried to dodge blame for the coal ash spill that destroyed homes and damaged property near its Kingston, Tenn., coal-firing plant, according to a report released by the utility’s Inspector General.

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Three million tons of toxic coal ash recovered from east Tennessee from a breached impoundment at a coal-firing plant which sent a wave of the dangerous material on to a neighboring community, will be moved to Perry County, Alabama, and stored in a privately owned landfill near Uniontown. The deal could generate $4.1 million in fees and more than 50 jobs to the community, which has the highest unemployment rate in the state. But residents are hardly optimistic.

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