It was alarming in 2008 when a wall at a TVA coal ash landfill in the Harriman area west of Knoxville collapsed, spilling more than a billion gallons of wet ash onto hundreds of acres of farmland and in the Emory River.
In particular, there were immediate and understandable concerns about how the spill might affect human health.
So it is tentative "good news" to learn that there appear to have been no ill health effects upon the Tennesseans who lived in that immediate area.
An independent study funded by TVA said there are "no expected long-term effects on physical health from current levels of exposure" to the ash.
That's not a complete "all-clear" sign. Not all residents in the area volunteered to take part in the study, and it is sensibly urged that testing be conducted a few years down the road in case longer-term ill effects should arise.
Certainly if it is legitimately shown that anyone's health was harmed by the spill, that person should be entitled to compensation.
But for now at least, it appears that those who lived near the site of the spill were spared serious medical harm. We are grateful for that, and we hope that longer-term testing will yield the same result.