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

Nearly one year after a coal ash impoundment at the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Kingston, Tenn., coal-burning plant breached, sending 1.1 billion gallons of toxic coal ash on to 300 acres of a neighboring community, toppling houses, destroying property and contaminating the Emory River, it’s hard to believe that the TVA can live up to its promise to restore the land to its original beauty. Even if it can, whose to say the damage hasn’t already been done? “Concerns have been raised as to the impact of the contamination on groundwater supplies and air quality as well as effects on the local economy and property values,” says Rick Harmon, a writer with Current.com.

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A Tennessee state advisory board is calling for tougher regulation of coal ash impoundment ponds and recommending that the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) turn over control of its storage ponds to the Dam Safety Group, according to WRAL. The board, which formed in the wake of last year’s massive coal ash spill from the Kingston, Tenn., TVA plant, released a report this week outlining its recommendations. The board also recommended that an independent board oversee the design, construction and closure of ash retention ponds.

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Indiana and Kentucky have the most coal ash ponds in the country and many of those ponds have numerous deficiencies and were built without trained engineers, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA conducted the survey on the nation’s coal ash ponds following last December’s massive spill in which a coal ash impoundment pond at a Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) coal-firing plant in east Tennessee broke, sending 1.1 gallons of toxic sludge onto 300 acres of a neighboring community. The coal ash destroyed homes, damaged property and contaminated nearby waterways, and is being blamed for making many locals sick.

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Glen and Lisa Sexton listed their house in Kingston, Tennessee for sale last September and had plenty of out-of-state offers. But since an a coal ash impoundment pond at the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) plant 16 miles away failed last December and flooded the neighboring community with more than a billion gallons of coal ash, no one seems interested in their home. “Our situation is we can’t sell it. It’s worthless,” Glen says.

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Not everyone is trying to keep the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) from dumping coal ash on its property. One company wants the TVA to pay them to haul and hold coal ash in its Cumberland County strip mine.

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) signed an enforceable agreement with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to oversee the removal of coal ash from its east Tennessee fossil fuel plant where a coal ash impoundment breached and dumped more than a billion gallons of toxic coal ash on to a neighboring community and into the Emory River. The TVA was also ordered to reimburse the EPA for any costs associated with its oversight of the cleanup.

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Lawmakers sit on both sides of the argument about whether lining the coal ash impoundment at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston, Tennessee, plant would have prevented the massive spill of toxic material onto neighboring homes and property, but legislation is moving through the Tennessee House and Senate that would require such ponds created or expanded in the future to be lined, according to the Times Free Press.

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The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has asked a federal judge to dismiss all lawsuits filed against it as a result of the December 22, 2008, coal ash spill at the utility’s Kingston, Tennessee, coal-firing plant, according to the Ledger-Enquirer/Associated Press. The spill occurred when a coal ash impoundment pond failed and dumped more than a billion gallons of toxic material on to 300 acres of a neighboring community and into the Emory River.

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The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has paid more than $20 million buying 71 properties in the east Tennessee community that were affected by the December 2008 coal ash impoundment breach. And while TVA is negotiating to buy more, it has already turned down 160 other offers from residents in the area, according to Forbes/Associated Press.

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When the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) coal ash impoundment pond burst last December, it did more than dump a billion gallons of toxic material on to peoples’ property and into Emery River where people from all around would fish, boat and swim. It destroyed homes in its wake, and quickly diminished property values. And it created a nuisance not just to those who had to flee the area, but to the ones who stayed who now live with the 20-hour-a-day, continuous cleanup effort by the TVA.

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