YAHOO/AP: Breathing problems reported near Tenn. ash spill

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A survey finds Tennessee residents are experiencing breathing problems, stress and anxiety near where more than 1 billion gallons of coal ash sludge spilled from a power plant storage facility.

USA TODAY: TVA chief says coal ash spill was 'catastrophe'

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Trying to rebuild credibility as well as the site of a huge coal ash spill, the president of the Tennessee Valley Authority acknowledged the massive sludge flood was worse than the agency's public relations staff initially said.

"It was a 'catastrophe,"' Tom Kilgore said, contradicting an internal TVA memo obtained by The Associated Press in which the description of the disaster was changed from "catastrophic" to a "sudden, accidental" release.

"As I have told people, look at the second definition of the word 'catastrophe,"' Kilgore said. "It says, 'A sudden movement of large earth.' That is certainly what this was."

The TVA memo was also edited to remove "risk to public health and risk to the environment" as a reason for measuring water quality and the potential of an "acute threat" to fish.

KNOXVILLE BIZ: TVA cleanup to take years

The cleanup of the Kingston fly ash spill will take years and could cost hundreds of millions of dollars, a Tennessee Valley Authority spokeswoman told a group of Knoxville engineers and other technophiles Monday.

TVA spokeswoman Barbara Martocci gave an update on the cleanup during a luncheon of the Technological Society of Knoxville at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. TVA officials have submitted a Phase I dredging plan for the Emory River but haven’t forged a long-term plan, Martocci said.

KNOXVILLE BIZ: TVA used fed plan 2nd

The Tennessee Valley Authority didn't use a mandated command structure for interagency disaster response at the Kingston Fossil Plant's fly ash spill, making coordination with local emergency personnel an ad hoc affair for the first couple of days following the disaster, according to Roane County's top emergency responder.

Roane County Emergency Management and Homeland Security Director Howie Rose said TVA officials didn't initially use the Incident Command System required by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Part of the National Incident Management System, the system allows agencies that normally use different terminology and protocols to coordinate efforts when responding to emergencies.

OPED NEWS: Only part of TVA Coal Ash Disaster is Being Told

A flood of Coal Ash from a broken containment wall at a TVA power plant did one good thing: it sunk an absurdly distorted advertising campaign from the proponents of Clean Coal. Millions spent to divert attention from a disaster that the Coal Industry KNEW was just waiting to happen is a crime in itself.

Other than exposing this lie, critical news about this Tennessee disaster, if you can find it, is horrendous, and getting worse. Some call it another Katrina-size disaster, waiting to happen at other similar waste lagoons spread across as many as 30 states. A 2005 Associated Press analysis found that about 20 million tons of Coal Ash ends up in surface ponds like this one in eastern Tennessee. The current Administration's Environmental Protection Agency has been stonewalling this problem for 8 years, as you would expect.

AP: Ala. plant accident heightens pressure on TVA

STEVENSON, Ala. – A retention pond at a Tennessee Valley Authority coal-burning power plant leaked waste into a northeast Alabama creek Friday, ramping up pressure on the utility that already is trying to clean up last month's major coal ash spill at a plant in Tennessee.

TVA officials said the latest discharge — water laced with calcium sulfate, a component of a material known as gypsum — presented no danger to people or the environment. But environmentalists were quick to criticize, and some lawmakers said it was more evidence Congress needs to overhaul coal waste regulations.

HUFFINGTON POST: Tennessee Coal Sludge Disaster: Think This Could Not Happen to You? Think Again.

On December 22 (2 weeks ago), over 1 billion gallons of toxic coal sludge came cascading through Eastern Tennessee. The tidal wave of sludge toppled houses and dirtied rivers and streams. This toxic coal ash has been stored in an open 40-acre pond next to the 50-year-old power plant. According to State authorities, after the spill there are 54,000 people with contaminated water in Roane County alone, and many more outside the county may also have tainted drinking water.

If you think this could not happen to you, think again. More than 50 percent of Americans live within 30 miles of a coal-fired power plant.

TPM: First Job for Waxman: Investigate the Kingston, TN Coal Ash Disaster

If Henry Waxman wants to make a statement that the time has arrived for a serious debate about the country's energy future, climate change, deregulation, and policy effectiveness, his first act as the new chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee should be to launch hearings into last month's coal ash spill in eastern Tennessee.

CHATTANOOGA TIMES FREE PRESS: Tennessee Valley Authority boosts estimate from coal ash spill

HARRIMAN, Tenn. — A coal ash spill that blanketed more than 300 acres of the Emory River and surrounding properties is more than three times bigger than originally estimated, officials of the Tennessee Valley Authority said Friday.

KENNY'S SIDESHOW: TVA dike break - Tennessee's Exxon Valdez

An environmental rape of a beautiful part of Tennessee after an economic rape of electric customers in a record earnings year by the largest public utility in the country.

KNOX NEWS: TVA working to repair damage to area after pond breach

HARRIMAN - A pair of fishermen stood in a boat casting into the waters of Watts Bar Lake a few hundred feet from the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston Fossil Plant the afternoon of Christmas Eve, seemingly oblivious to the massive environmental cleanup on the other side of the plant or the fly ash flowing in their direction.

On Wednesday, about 30 track hoes, bulldozers, dump trucks and tanker trucks swarmed over a 400-acre site where a retention pond blew out early Monday morning, sending 1.7 million cubic yards of fly ash and water into the surrounding environs.

LEXINGTON HERALD-LEADER: Sludge spill stirs concerns in Kentucky

A day after a massive coal sludge break in Tennessee covered hundreds of acres in ashy waste, Kentucky environmentalists and leaders said they will continue pushing for legislation to require emergency action plans in case of similar failures in their state.

Monday's break in Tennessee released millions of yards of dark gray mud that toppled power lines, covered roads and railroad tracks and ruptured a gas line, according to The Associated Press. No one was seriously hurt.