Recently in The Kingston Coal Ash Spill Category

Board members have been meeting privately in committees, and on conference calls and closed sessions over the past month and a half -- all without the public knowing. The Tennessean has learned of four meetings since Dec. 22 that the TVA describes as "briefings," in which board members were present in Knoxville or on conference calls with management. The same type of unannounced, private meetings occurred before the spill, too.

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The board says it's all perfectly legal, and its lawyers have given their OK. No votes or actions have been taken in these sessions, they say.

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Critics say the real business occurs in the closeted committee meetings. Four such meetings have been held since the spill. The committees report at open board meetings, but their minutes are not provided to the public.

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Federal law governing the agency allows its four committees to meet without public notice because the committees are small enough that they don't constitute a board quorum that can carry out policy of the agency, according to the board.

Others, however, say most decisions -- if not literally pre-determined -- are largely made in this shrouded committee process before official board meetings take place. 

Solid Waste    C+

In 2007, the U.S. produced 254 million tons of solid waste. More than a third was recycled or recovered, representing a seven percent increase since 2000. Per capita generation of waste has remained relatively constant over the last 20 years. Despite those successes, the increasing volume of electronic waste and lack of uniform regulations for disposal creates the potential for high levels of hazardous materials and heavy metals in the nation's landfills, posing a significant threat to public safety.

Reps. Zach Wamp, and Lincoln Davis, say the funds would ease the burden on Tennessee Valley Authority ratepayers, as the utility pays more than $1 million a day on the cleanup.

"The ash spill is going to increase our rates. Everybody knows it," Rep. Wamp said. "The $25 million is to help local governments. I know TVA is committed to paying for the cleanup, but they can't borrow money because of the cap on their debt levels, so it's going to be passed on to ratepayers."

But the proposal has drawn fire from other lawmakers, including Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who said the federal aid has no place in a stimulus bill designed to kick-start the country's ailing economy.

"It's a discredit to the whole process to in any way allude to (the aid) as a stimulus," Sen. Corker said. "This is exactly the kind of thing that causes Americans to be so discontented with Congress. That is not a stimulus. If people want to talk about this as the 2009 pork package, that's a different thing."

An aide to Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who earlier said he would support efforts to obtain federal dollars for the cleanup, said in a statement, "if there is a federal pilot program to deal with coal ash, Kingston would be an ideal location. But cleaning up this spill is ultimately TVA's responsibility."

The memo was edited to remove "risk to public health and risk to the environment" as a reason for measuring water quality and the potential of an "acute threat" to fish.

A reworked description of fly ash noted it mostly "consists of inert material not harmful to the environment," while references to "toxic metals" in the ash were moved to a section on water sampling.
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Noel Holston, a public relations specialist with the University of Georgia's Peabody journalism awards program, said it would be "hard to infer a motive to s/uch corrections and fine tunings."

But he said, "I can't imagine that anyone who sees these additions and deletions would not conclude that the final version is softer and less alarming than the earlier wording. The fact is they whittled away at this until it said something a little less frightening than what it originally said."