Hundreds sue TVA before deadline expires on personal injury claims from Tenn. coal ash spill

TVA coal ash spill: hundreds are suing for damages

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Hundreds of people have sued the Tennessee Valley Authority ahead of a deadline for filing personal injury claims over a massive coal ash spill.

Court clerks said 20 federal lawsuits were filed in Knoxville ahead of Tuesday’s one-year deadline.

They are the lastest suits stemming from the Dec. 22, 2008, spill and ensuing cleanup of toxin-laden muck that breached a holding pond at the authority’s coal-fired Kingston plant.

TVA President Tom Kilgore has said the nation’s largest public utility will go to court “looking to defend ourselves.” The utility contends in court that it provides a government service and is immune from such claims.

The utility has said it is giving the Kingston area a total of $43 million.