Green Options

Lawyers representing owners of waterfront property impacted by the 1.1 billion gallon spill of fly ash from Tennessee’s Kingston Fossil Plant have filed a lawsuit requesting $5 million in damages in addition to class action status for all residents affected by the massive spill.

Officials at the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) are bracing themselves for a long-term wildlife study at the TVA spill site. The area was severely contaminated after a massive release of coal ash on Dec. 22, 2008. The spill originated from a holding pond belonging to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Kingston Steam Plant on Watts Bar Reservoir.

A large number of fish were killed immediately following the spill which dumped 5.4 million cubic yards (more than 1 billion gallons) of toxic sludge directly into the Emory River and surrounding lands. The spill occurred when the earthen wall of a storage pond breached. The scale of the accident is much larger than initially reported.