Displaying items by tag: clinch river water quality

APIEL serves as both a legal forum and space for collective visioning

KNOXVILLE — Now in its 16th year, the Appalachian Public Interest and Environmental Law Conference continues to be critical for environmental and public interest advocates across the Southeast. It is hosted annually at the University of Tennessee College of Law, and brings together lawyers, students, grassroots organizers, scientists, and policy experts to address some of the most urgent challenges facing Appalachia and beyond. 

This year’s APIEL conference, set for Oct. 25-26, is free and open to the public and features a wide range of panels and workshops centered on environmental justice struggles that expose the interlocking systems of racial, ecological, and economic harm. One focus is the ongoing resistance to a proposed AI data center in Memphis, which threatens historically Black neighborhoods with toxic waste and unsustainable water usage. 

Other highlights include a panel on the lasting effects of the Trump administration on the National Park Service and public land policy, a discussion of emerging “climate-washing” litigation targeting corporations making false sustainability claims, and a groundbreaking session titled “Abolition is Ecological.” This panel will explore how justice systems contribute to environmental violence, and how community defense strategies in places like Appalachia are reimagining what true public safety and ecological care could look like. 

Bull Run Fossil Plant in Claxton, Tennessee, was originally commissioned 55 years ago but TVA is now soliciting public input on the best way to shut down operations. Tennessee Valley Authority

TVA solicits public input following release of environmental assessment for Bull Run Fossil Plant decommission

CLAXTON — Tennessee Valley Authority plans to close its Bull Run Fossil Plant (BRF) in Anderson County, but it’s still looking for public input on what comes next.

“As a large, inflexible coal unit with medium operating costs and a high forced outage rate, BRF does not fit current and likely future portfolio needs,” the federal utility said in a draft Environmental Assessment.

TVA is looking at three different options for the future of the structures still standing on the site by the Clinch River near Oak Ridge: taking down all structures; taking down some of them; or leaving everything standing. A recent report lays out the environmental consequences of each of these actions. The report, in draft form, is against that third choice, listing it as only an option for the sake of comparison.

“If the facility is left in the “as-is” condition, it likely would present a higher risk than Alternatives A or B for the potential to contaminate soil and groundwater as systems and structures degrade. As such, this alternative is not a reasonable alternative,” the draft states.

TVA stated its considering removing “all or most of the buildings and structures” on a 250-acre area. After closing the plant, but before any demolitions, TVA will begin by removing components that may be used at other TVA sites, draining of oil and fluids from equipment, taking ash out of the boilers, removing information technology assets, removing plant records and other tasks.

The Bull Run Environmental Assessment is 170 pages long and available for public review. It doesn’t directly tackle the coal ash storage conundrum that has grabbed the attention of politicians, nearby residents and environmental activists, because that issue involves separate regulations.