Was the Tennessee coal ash disaster really a once-in-a-lifetime event?
A new report from an engineering firm hired by the Tennessee Valley Authority identified factors behind last year’s disaster that unleashed more than a billion of gallons of toxic ash from a massive storage pond at the federal company’s Kingston plant in eastern Tennessee. It claims that the disaster was a one-of-a-kind event—but skeptical coal ash watchdogs are calling for a more thorough investigation by federal authorities. “This type of explanation sounds eerily familiar,” says Earthjustice attorney Lisa Evans. “When 125 people were killed in the Buffalo Creek coal slurry disaster of 1972, the coal company made the same claims, calling the event an ‘act of God’ to avoid liability, despite the fact that the dam failure was clearly caused by poorly constructed and inspected impoundments.” Commissioned by TVA and conducted by the Los Angeles-based engineering giant AECOM, the report says that the Kingston spill was caused by a combination of factors. They include the high water conten
