Speed up coal ash cleanup
After introducing the Ensuring the Safe Disposal of Coal Ash Act last week, I made a statement in which I noted my disappointment at what I called the TVA’S “unacceptably slow” cleanup of coal ash pollution from the Allen Fossil Plant in southwest Memphis.
It wasn’t the first time I have been critical of the unhurried plan for removal of 3.5 million cubic yards of toxin-laden coal ash that the company says could take eight to 10 years.
I’ve said that timeline is unreasonable and needs to be sped up.
So imagine my surprise when I read in The Commercial Appeal on Tuesday that TVA CEO Jeff Lyash might find a way to accelerate the Allen cleanup – “faster than anticipated” – if Memphis commits to continuing to buy its electricity from the federal utility.
Where I come from, that sounds a lot like extortion.
TVA has a duty under federal law to clean up the pollutants it produced and that have found their way into the groundwater under the Allen plant, now recognized as one of the most contaminated sites in the country. The people of Memphis deserve a cleanup without conditions, and the City of Memphis should reject this entire negotiating ploy.
Congressman Tim Burchett of Knoxville and I wrote to TVA in 2019 to object to the agency’s plan to have ratepayers pay for the misdeeds of the contractor used for coal ash cleanup work at its Kingston, Tennessee, plant after the nation’s worst coal ash spill. This shows a pattern of irresponsibility.
It is disturbing to see a New Deal federal agency intended to provide power to poor people threatening to slow-walk the cleanup of its own negligence involving its largest customer.
I have made no secret that I think the city should seek another source of electricity in an effort to save money for my constituents, who have one of the highest energy burdens in the country.
But linking that decision to the speed of a mandated environmental cleanup insults the good people of Memphis.
My bill will be considered in a legislative hearing by the Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday and I hope it will pass the House as part of the CLEAN Future Act in the coming months.
If it becomes law, it would strengthen protections outlined in the 2015 Coal Ash Rule and protect communities across the country by mandating safer and faster disposal of this dangerous waste product of electricity production.
It’s an important goal because the disposal of coal ash is a national problem as well as our local one.
Let’s be clear that the coal ash cleanup and the decision to stay or leave TVA are unrelated and must remain unrelated. I am acutely aware of the unfairness of this ongoing environmental disaster and will remain resolute in keeping the TVA on track to meet its obligation to end it.
U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-memphis, represents Tennessee’s Ninth Congressional District.