During his presentation at Arts Build in Chattanooga, Sullivan gave a thumbnail historical sketch of the Tennessee Valley Authority. The agency was a cornerstone of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal designed to provide electricity and bring prosperity to the South. Sullivan spoke of some good things the agency has done, so his view of the agency is not all negative. 

Despite that, he presents a compelling story of a wall of toxic sludge breaking free from an earthen dam and damaging properties downstream. According to the book, the temperature was 14 degrees, so cold the pipes had frozen at a local McDonald’s. The coal-ash mound had grown into a topographic feature over more than 50 years of operations at the steam plant. More than a billion gallons of coal ash slurry broke loose, filled a lagoon, inundated the Emory River and filled a channel forty feet deep. Some slurry also entered the Clinch River. 

Houses on a peninsula below the steam plant suffered damage, but that was only the beginning. Then came the cleanup, during which crews worked day and night. Sullivan said many people were anxious to join the crews because the spill happened shortly after the 2008 economic downturn. People were out of work and desperate. Then many of them became desperately ill with lung and brain cancer and leukemia. 

In their lawsuit, the plaintiffs argued they had not been thoroughly informed of the inherent health risks in dealing with coal ash, nor provided with protective gear while doing the cleanup. The case became a long-term project and many of the plaintiffs died during the process. Jacobs Engineering settled the case in 2023. The company disagreed with Sullivan’s conclusions and a statement appears here. 

Though he won the case, Scott, the attorney, suffered personal and economic hardship.

The book has extensive footnotes; the contractor in charge of the cleanup has disputed the story. 

Sullivan has written for Men’s Journal, Field and Stream, The New Yorker, Time, Garden and Gun, and USA Today.