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The nine-member TVA Board of Directors sets policy and strategy for TVA. The members are nominated by the President and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve five-year terms. Their next board meeting is February 12 in Bristol, TN. Board Members Chairman William B. Sansom of Knoxville, Tenn., is chairman and chief executive officer of…

iLoveMountains.org, a coalition fighting mountaintop removal coal mining, of which Appalachian Voices is a partner organization has launched a comprehensive section of information including links to news, blog posts, photos, and videos of the event as well as detailed information about coal fly ash, historical accounts of other similar incidents, and personal accounts of the…

When the Environmental Protection Agency decided not to regulate coal fly ash in 2000, saying the materials were “non-hazardous,” environmental scientists were aghast, since many coal waste storage facilities had already appeared on toxic waste “superfund” lists and many others were eligible. By 2007, EPA admitted there was a problem, saying coal waste and fly…

Environmental organizations teamed up Saturday to take water samples along the embattled Emory river despite attempts by authorities to keep them away. John L. Wathen, a Hurricane Creekkeeper; Sandra Diaz, Appalachian Voices’ National Field Coordinator; and Donna Lisenby, the Watauga Riverkeeper, used kayaks to access the Emory River and the site of the Kingston Steam…

Appalachian Voices’ National Field Coordinator Sandra Diaz and the Watauga RIverkeeper Donna Lisenby visited ground zero of the TVA coal fly ash spill in Harriman, TN, today, kayaking into the area hardest hit and taking water samples for independent study. Below are Sandra’s updates by cell phone using the Twitter service: # Uploaded a few…

Folks from United Mountain Defense took a small boat up the Emory River and into ground zero of the Kingston Steam Plant coal ash spill.

A coal ash spill in eastern Tennessee that experts were already calling the largest environmental disaster of its kind in the United States is more than three times as large as initially estimated, according to an updated survey by the Tennessee Valley Authority. As reported in various news media, including the New York Times, officials…

Written by Harvard Ayers Founding Board Member, Appalachian Voices Yesterday, Christmas, December 25, 2008, around 4:30 PM, I flew over the fly ash spill at the TVA Kingston Coal Plant located on Interstate 40, about 30 miles west of Knoxville, Tennessee. The pilot of the flight was Jim Lapis of SouthWings flying service from Bristol,…

Coal fly ash contains many toxic, carcinogenic and poisonous substances that are particularly dangerous in aquatic ecosystems. Most fly ash and coal combustion residue (CCR) is sent to landfills or abandoned mines. In some cases, such as the TVA Kingston plant, it is kept on site. ( Althought there are “green” or “beneficial” uses for…

(Photo courtesy Tennessee Green). Residents in the Harriman TN area near the Kingston power plant are not very well informed, Tennessee Green says. “It would be nice to find out something,” the web site quoted one resident as saying.