I have posted my op ed on the anniversary of the TVA ash spill disaster on Counterpunch: "The TVA Ash Spill One Year Later: Lessons Learned"
December 16, 2009

Pulse of the Planet

The TVA Ash Spill One Year Later: Lessons Learned

By GREGORY BUTTON

Nearly a year ago on Monday, December 22, 2009, at the Kingston fossil fuel plant in Eastern Tennessee, a fly ash impoundment collapsed and within minutes released 5.4 million cubic yards of toxic fly ash into the Emory River and over 300 acres of land. The spill damaged numerous homes, destroyed a portion of a rail line and covered a portion of a highway. Fortunately there were no fatalities, but the lives of hundreds of nearby residents were severely altered, some forever, by one of the worst in environmental disaster in our nation's history. The TVA estimates that it will cost rate- payers more than one billion dollars for the clean-up effort.