More Trouble For TVA over Ash Pond Spills and Air Pollution

     T-V-A took some more lumps on Tuesday.

     Tennessee environmental regulators hit the agency with an enforcement order.

Spill Enforcement Order

     The enforcement order covers the ash pond spill near Harriman Tennessee.
     It obligates T-V-A to specific requirements for cleaning up the spill.
     The agency will also have to pay the state for its oversight of the cleanup.
     And the agency must turn over all documents that could explain what caused the earth dam to fail.
     Governor Bredesen says the state could still hit them with more fines.

Chattanooga Water

     Tennessee American Water company has monitored Chattanooga's your drinking water since the Harriman spill.
     They say they have NOT found any increase in heavy metals or other contaminants since the spill.
     But they have prepared for cleaning it if they do find trouble.
     Tenn-Am's water intakes are about a hundred miles down river from the Harriman spill.

Stevenson Spill

     The city of Scottsboro is also checking its water supply since last Friday's ash pond leak near Stevenson.
     Residents are concerned because, since the spill, they can see residue floating on top of the Tennessee.
     Officials call them cenospheres... Which are hollow bands of a sandlike material that are about the size of a human hair.
     T-V-A says they are harmless.
     And the Scottsboro Daily Sentinel reports that the local Water Board hasn't found any contaminants in the drinking water.
     It says it automatically skims out solid material like the cenospheres.

Air Pollution Ruling

     And finally, one more blow for TVA.
     A federal judge has sided with North Carolina in their air pollution lawsuit against the agency.
     The judge has ordered TVA to install pollution controls at four coal-fired power plants.
     But North Carolina wanted the controls at all eleven of T-V-A's plants.
     So where are those four dirty coal plants?

     You, guessed it.

     Two of them are the Kingston Plant in Harriman and the Widow's Creek plant in Stevenson, where the ash ponds spilled.