The Tennessee Valley Authority said Monday it plans to appeal a federal court ruling that it dig up and remove coal ash buried at TVA’s Gallatin Fossil Plant in Middle Tennessee.
TVA lawyers filed an appeal notice in federal court in Nashville to try to pursue their case to the U.S. Court of Appeals, although the federal utility did not ask for a stay of the previous order or a delay in the August ruling by federal Judge Waverly Crenshaw ordering TVA to remove the coal ash at Gallatin.
TVA argues the court-ordered method of cleanup for coal residues at Gallatin would take up to 24 years and cost $550 million using a lined landfill onsite, or up to $2 billion and possibly a different timeline with an offsite landfill. TVA spokesman Scott Brooks said capping and storing the coal ash where it is now would likely cost only about $200 million and still be as effective in limiting water pollution.
But the Southern Environmental Law Center, which has challenged TVA’s coal disposal methods, disagrees about the effectiveness of keeping the coal ash in place and contends TVA overestimates the time and cost of removing the ash.
Crewnshaw sided with the lawsuit brought by environmental groups against TVA, ruling in a 123-page decision in August that the testimony in the case “conclusively establishes that coal ash constituents have historically been discharged into the Cumberland River” from the TVA coal ash ponds in violation of the Clean Water Act.