TVA Ordered to Dig Up, Move Coal Ash at Gallatin Plant

The Tennessee Valley Authority must excavate coal ash stored at its Gallatin, Tenn., plant near Nashville and dispose of it in a lined landfill, a remedy for water pollution estimated to cost some $2 billion, a federal court ordered.

“While the burden of closure by removal may be great, it is the only adequate resolution to an untenable situation that has gone on for far too long,” Waverly D. Crenshaw Jr., chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, said his Aug. 4 ruling (Tenn. Clean Water Network v. Tenn. Valley Auth., M.D. Tenn., No. 3:15-cv-00424, 8/4/17