N.C. vs. TVA clean-air lawsuit

Posted on by Jason Sandford

North Carolina filed this nuisance lawsuit in 2006 in a bid to force the utility to reduce the air pollution produced by TVA’s 11 coal-burning power plants in Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee. State Attorney General Roy Cooper argued that thousands of N.C. residents suffer adverse health affects, such as asthma, because of pollution blowing over the mountain’s from TVA’s plants. The lawsuit contends that the pollution is a nuisance, and it aims to force the TVA to clean it up.

The TVA disputes those claims, arguing that it has spent billions of dollars to reduce emissions and that pollution produced by North Carolina’s in-state coal-burning power plants poses a more significant threat.

In 2008, the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals turned down TVA’s motion to dismiss the suit, sending it back to North Carolina’s Western District Court and Judge Lacy Thornburg in Asheville. The trial is scheduled to begin July 14, 2008.

Click here to download a PDF of the lawsuit.

In an order signed Jan. 13, 2009, Judge Thornburg ruled that the TVA must install pollution controls at four of its coal-fired power plants closest to North Carolina, but denied Cooper’s request to add the controls at seven other plants.

Click here to read Judge Thornburg’s opinion, and click here to read the judgement.

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One thought on “N.C. vs. TVA clean-air lawsuit”

  1. Aaron Penland

    Where does one start? Here we have N.C. suing TVA for air pollution. Wonder what is going to happen when the contamination migrates off the CTS of Asheville site located on Mills Gap rd. It just so happens that’s where the contamination is entering the ground water supply is at the head waters of two different creeks that eventually end up at the same place. If you start at the Dingle Creek side it travels down gradient and eventually finds its way to Overlook road and traverses through some of the highest valued property in Asheville “The Ramble” then dumps into the French Broad. On the other side it goes through Robinson creek to Cane creek eventually making it’s way to the French Broad. Everyone knows that from there the French Broad travels Northwest into Tennessee. I wonder how they will react to us sending our toxic waste to them since The EPA will not make the responsible party clean it up. Time will tell

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