My previous post about this incident was mainly an overview of what happened, and a brief overview of the lack of "clean coal" plants despite a massive marketing and advertising campaign. As a followup to that, news is out today that lawsuits are beginning to be filed against the Tennessee Valley Authority. You can read about the first of what should be many at Democracynow.org .

Unfortunately however, the $165 million lawsuit was filed by land developers, who are claiming that the land was devalued by the coal ash spill. While it is good that such a lawsuit is filed to hopefully influence the Tennessee Valley Authority to rethink their waste containment and treatment, there will certainly be more people affected and injured by this spill than 4 land developers. I would much prefer to see the people's homes that were affected by the disaster as well the fisherman and surrounding communities that use the now contaminated water source to take part in the lawsuit, hopefully their day in court that will come later.

So far the lack of mainstream media coverage has lead to conflicting reports on the toxicity of the water and the air quality (TVA is claiming that water and air quality is safe, while the EPA has found arsenic levels in the water to be 149 times the safe level, which is not at all surprising). However, if indeed the water quality of the Emory River (which the spill dumped into, and as a main tributary to the Tennessee River could affect fish populations and water quality for a massive amount of people), is as toxic the EPA thinks, there will be a lot more people effected than just the 4 real estate developers by this massive spill.



Regardless of who profits from a lawsuit, the bottom line remains the same. If our country is going to solve our energy problems, coal is simply not the answer. The threat of similar accidents combined with the inherent environmental damage caused by extraction and the non existence of plants that can recycle their emissions (thus making them "clean") will hopefully be enough for the new administration to say no to the further construction of coal plants.

To join in to support the United Mountain Defense (a local volunteer environmental group that is on the scene assisting with clean up) go here , and join in petition of a complete and restitutive cleanup by the TVA.