TVA’s Congressional Briefing and the Gallatin Plant

January 8, 2009, WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Tennessee Valley Authority Congressional Caucus was briefed by TVA’s President/CEO and Board Chairman about the recent environmental spill at the Kingston Fossil Fuel Plant near the city of Harriman.  Congressman Gordon participated in the meeting and received assurances that the Kingston disaster would not occur at the TVA’s other facilities, which includes the Gallatin Plant in Sumner County.

At the meeting, Gordon stated, “My grandfather always said that the most important road in the county is the one in front of your house.  And, this could lead to my front door too with the Gallatin Plant.  I want to you ensure that this kind of disaster doesn’t happen at the Gallatin facility or any of the other facility.”

The disaster that occurred on December 22nd at the Kingston Fossil Fuel Plant amounted to the worst coal plant spill in our nation’s history.  It resulted in more than a billion gallons of the hazardous waste being spread across 300 acres of land in East Tennessee.  The spill clogged the Emory River, destroyed three homes, and displaced a dozen families.

“The strategy to ending our dependence on foreign oil is developing alternative energy sources,” Gordon said, “but in the meantime we need to be using all of our domestic resources – coal, natural gas, and petroleum.  In doing so, we need to ensure that spills like this never again happen.”

Gordon joined members of the Tennessee Congressional delegation and other neighboring state delegations at the briefing, where TVA President/CEO, Tom Kilgore, and Board Chairman, Bill Sansom, answered questions.

Kilgore and Sansom assured they were taking measures to make certain that a similar disaster would not happen again.  They also said TVA’s priorities in terms the spill at the Kingston facility were first and foremost cleaning up the spill for the affected landowners, followed by cleaning up the rivers and the surrounding environment.

(Note: A high-resolution photo of the TVA meeting can be found by clicking on the following link: http://gordon.house.gov/images/CurrentEvents_TVA_HiRes.JPG. The photo was taken by the Cong. Gordon’s Office. To the left of Gordon is TVA President/CEO Tom Kilgore and Board Chairman Bill Sansom.)