TVA Appeals Court Ruling On Gallatin Ash, Even While Agreeing To Move It

The Tennessee Valley Authority is appealing a federal judge’s ruling to relocate all of its coal ash piled around a power plant in Gallatin. But TVA is still agreeing to follow the court’s order.

A spokesman for TVA says the utility intends to move 12 million cubic yards of muddy ash into a lined pit, farther away from the Cumberland River.

“Complying with the order to remove the ash at Gallatin is a significant investment in time and resources on behalf of consumers of TVA power,” the utility says in a statement. “We feel it is important for TVA to exercise our legal option to appeal the ruling.”

Rather than transporting the ash offsite, the utility has said its preference is to secure the spent coal on its Gallatin property, and attorney Beth Alexander with the Southern Environmental Law Center says that’s fine with her.

But the SELC, which sued TVA over contamination of the Cumberland, is still going to fight the appeal in court.

“I also know that they haven’t started excavating any ash at this point,” Alexander says. “So it would be my preference to be under the jurisdiction of the federal court through that process.”

Alexander accuses TVA of dragging its feet and expects the utility may not want to move the ash as fast as a federal judge would want. TVA estimates the relocation could take as long as two decades.