"Trial Over TVA's Storage Of Coal Ash Begins"

"An expert told a federal judge in Nashville on Monday that a Gallatin power plant released more coal ash pollutants in an eight-year period than the 2008 in coal ash spill in Kingston and the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Chris Groves, a professor of hydrogeology — the movement of water under the earth's surface — at Western Kentucky University testified as the first witness for environmental groups that are suing Tennessee Valley Authority, which operates the Gallatin Fossil Plant, alleging violations of the Clean Water Act.

He said that according to his analysis of TVA documents, about 27 billion gallons of coal ash waste seeped from storage ponds at the plant into the Cumberland River between 1970 and 1978."

Stacey Barchenger reports for the Nashville Tennessean January 30, 2017.