A class action Lawsuit has been filed against the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) on behalf of Landowners along the Emory and Clinch rivers, as response to the Kingston Coal Ash disaster. The plaintiffs are seeking $5 million in damages.
On December 22, 2008, hundreds of acres of rural land and a dozen homes were partially buried under a pile of ash, water, and mud, as a result of the failure of an earthen retention dam giving. The dam was used to hold a 40 acre slurry pond containing waste from coal-burning power plant in Kingston, Roane County, Tennessee. The facility is the nation's largest public utility.
A road and railroad tracks leading to the plant are also buried under the sludge. One woman's house was pushed off its foundations and carried 30 feet onto a nearby road.
The sludge that spilled from the pond allegedly contains aluminum, arsenic, barium, beryllium boron, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, and a host of other minerals, chemicals, compounds and potentially toxic contaminants. The clean-up is expected to run into the hundreds of millions of dollars. Many local residents have already asked for help.
