$165 Million Lawsuit Filed Over Tenn. Coal Ash Spill

The owners and developers of a flooded subdivision near a Tennessee Valley Authority plant are suing the utility after their property was damaged by a dike burst that spilled 1 billion gallons of coal ash sludge.

The complaint, filed in the Roane County Circuit Court by Jot and Brenda Raymond, Chris Raymond and Lea Ann Raymond Habib, is the first of many lawsuits expected to be filed in connection with the Dec. 22 spill.

The plaintiffs are owners and developers of North Lake Estates, a subdivision in Roane County. They have been unable to show their properties to prospective buyers because of the coal ash contamination, the complaint says.

Two of the plaintiffs own property in the same subdivision and were attempting to sell their home at the time of the spill.

As a result of the spill, a creek that runs through the development has been damaged and is backing up, the complaint charges.

The plaintiffs are seeking $15 million in compensatory damages and $150 million in punitive damages based on lost income, diminished property values, mental anguish and possible future health problems.

The TVA owns and operates the coal-fired Kingston Steam Plant in Roane County. The byproducts from the coal-burning process, which include arsenic and heavy metals, are deposited in a holding pond, according to the suit.

To contain the contaminants, the TVA built a berm around the holding pond.

The berm failed Dec. 22, and a billion gallons of coal ash sludge "poured across hundreds of acres near the Kingston Fossil Plant, destroying homes and damaging property and spoiling the vistas of the area," the suit says.

Those pollutants are leaching into the groundwater supply that serves the community, the complaint says.

Because the berm's failure was foreseeable, the TVA is liable for per se negligence, the complaint alleges.

Other lawsuits filed in the wake of the spill include Mays v. Tennessee Valley Authority, No. 09-06 (E.D. Tenn. Jan. 7, 2009), and Giltnane v. Tennessee Valley Authority, No. 09-14 (E.D. Tenn. Jan. 9, 2009).

In Mays the plaintiffs, who are landowners living along the Clinch and Emory Rivers, filed a $5 million public nuisance lawsuit and are seeking class certification.