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

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) will host a community open house in Harriman, Tennessee, today to answer questions about the utility’s cleanup efforts and testing on air, water and soil in the area. The community open house is the second forum hosted by the TVA in an effort to keep those in the area apprised of the utility’s efforts to “right” the environmental “wrong” created when its Kingston, Tennessee coal ash impoundment pond failed late last year and poured more than a billion gallons of coal ash sludge on to 300 acres of property in a rural Tennessee community. Coal ash contains toxins such as arsenic and lead which can be hazardous to human health.

Read the rest of this entry »

More than two dozen residents of the east Tennessee community affected by the December 2008 coal ash spill are asking a federal judge to halt the Tennessee Valley Authority’s cleanup efforts until more environmental studies and oversight have been performed, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel. Residents of the area are concerned the TVA is “recklessly forging ahead with a cleanup plan” that will cause the 300 acres of rural property to “sustain even greater environmental damage from preventable contamination, exposure and migration of coal ash through air, land and water.”

Read the rest of this entry »

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has been given permission to dredge the Emory River to remove ash that spilled into it after the utility’s coal ash pond failed last December and poured more than a billion gallons of toxic material on to 300 acres of east Tennessee property, according to MSNBC. The dredging is part of the TVA’s $1-million-a-day effort to clean up the massive mess, and was one of the items detailed in the utility’s cleanup plan aimed to return the community to “as good, if not better (condition) than they were before.”

Read the rest of this entry »

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) this week released to state regulators its plan to clean up the mess it left behind when its Kingston, Tennessee, plant dumped 1.1 billion gallons of toxic mess in east Tennessee last December. The plan outlines a detailed disposal plan that includes turning the Kingston coal ash ponds into dry ash storage and capping the existing pond, to “limit chances of another ash pond leak,”according to the Times Free Press.

Read the rest of this entry »

Coal ash ponds similar to the one at the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) plant in Kingston, Tennessee that failed and poured more than a billion gallons of toxic material on to east Tennessee property, are located all across the country, which has some people asking, “Can a coal ash spill happen here?” according to the Gillette News Record.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) repeatedly told Penny Dodson that she and her 18-month-old grandson Evan would be safe. They live near the utility’s Kingston, Tennessee, plant where in December a coal ash pond failed and poured more than a billion gallons of toxic material on to 300 acres of rural property and into Emory River. But when Evan started having trouble breathing, Penny took him to the doctor, who tested him for heavy metals.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) may turn to its residential customer base to help pay for the escalating costs to clean up the widespread damage caused when one of its coal ash ponds failed last December, pouring more than a billion gallons of toxic ash and sludge onto 300 acres of rural east Tennessee, according to the Jackson Sun.

Read the rest of this entry »

A team of scientists involved in the testing and cleanup efforts in Kingston, Tennessee, following the massive coal ash spill at a Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) impoundment pond, are proposing that the TVA turn the site into an independent educational and research center rather than try to clean up the sludge, according to the Knoxville Business News. The scientists say that spending $1 million per day to clean the site and restore it to its pre-spill condition is simply not practical.

Read the rest of this entry »

“The value of the property is gone. Nobody’s going to want to buy it,” says Wesley Self as he walks in his mother’s front yard in rural East Tennessee, the home where she had lived for 35 years. Her property was one of the 300 acres damaged in the Dec. 22 coal ash spill that dumped more than a billion gallons of toxic ash and sludge on to land and rivers, destroying property in its wake, according to the Knoxville Biz.

Read the rest of this entry »