Tennesseans Raise Coal Ash Concerns

crowded hearing room with one man speaking with his arm pointed out

Local residents are fighting against the Tennessee Valley Authority’s proposed coal ash landfill in Anderson County, Tenn., while others sued the utility in court over health problems they allege are linked to the Bull Run power plant.

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Proposed Coal Ash Regulations Weaker than Household Waste Laws

Nearly three years after the Tennessee Valley Authority coal ash disaster spilled over a billion gallons of toxic sludge into the Emory River in Harriman, Tenn., the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is set to finalize guidelines regulating coal ash ponds. However, a bill in the Senate could put a permanent hold on the EPA’s ability…

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Coal Ash Cleanup Effort Comes in Phases

Story by Sarah Vig “A clean-up can either be done right or it can be a ticking time bomb,” California Senator Barbara Boxer cautioned TVA CEO Tom Kilgore during the Environment and Public Works committee’s oversight hearing on the recent coal ash spill at the Kingston Fossil Plant near Harriman, TN. In response, Kilgore promised…

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United Mountain Defense: On the Front Lines at TVA Spill Site

Story by Sarah Vig Call them the environmental movement’s equivalent of an emergency response team. Within only 14 hours of the dam failure at the Kingston Fossil Plant, United Mountain Defense mobilized. Having gained years of experience organizing and conducting water sampling in communities throughout Tennessee impacted by mountaintop removal mining, and with headquarters in…

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Altered Lives- The Human Side of an Environmental Disaster

Story by Sarah Vig When looking at photographs of the TVA coal ash disaster in Roane County Tennessee, the enormity of the spill’s environmental impact is immediately apparent. According to some, the disaster could only be put into perspective from the air. But in other ways, the impacts are best seen on the ground. The…

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