Massive Coal Ash Spill Still Affecting Residents

It's been six months since a massive coal ash spill in Roane County but members of that community are still devestated. TVA says they held Tuesday's night's meeting at the Roane State Community College to let the public know exactly what's been going on, but almost every person we spoke with told us they still can't get any real answers.

More than a billion gallons of sludge spread throughout several communities in Roane County six months ago after coal ash spill at TVA's plant in Kingston. But community members, like Jill Turpin, say they're still trying to get help from the organization responsible for that spill.

"They say we're not affected in our zone but if you look they have that circle if there highlighter had been an sixteenth of an inch larger then it would have been on top of our house," Turpin says.

Turpin joins a host of other concerned citizens who came to tonight's meeting with a variety of questions for TVA about their futures.

"TVA says I'm not affected, I've never been so affected by anything in my life," one concerned citizen says. "How are you going to make me whole again?" he asks the TVA representative.

"I generally don't come to these meetings because I get really upset because I don't believe anything they say," Turpin says.

"We're still in the dark, everybody's in the dark, nobody knows what's going on," Thomas Ryan, a concerned citizen, says.

"We're in the recovery stage, we're making progress, we have a lot of work yet to do," Gil Francis, with TVA, says.

While a number of people decided to come to the College's Theatre to take part in the public meeting, some decided to stay outside to voice their disapproval of what could come to their communitites.

"I don't believe that anyone deserves to have live near this especially a group of people who have had nothing to do with this so far," Betsy Ramaccia says while wearing a full hazmat suit with a face mask.

Ramaccia lives in Perry County - a site where the remaining coal ash could be moved and that's why she stepped inside tonight to voice her disapproval.

"I appreciate that there are always people who wish that this wasn't there but we are looking at the majority of voices in Perry County," Anda Ray, with TVA, says while responding to Ramaccia.

But the immediate voices could be heard tonight from citizens, like Turpin, who live near the plant and are still looking for answers.

"I don't know if it can be made right I don't want to move, I love our place," Turpin says.

TVA says they're working on their ash disposal plan right now and they say until that plan is finished they're not sure how long it could take to get everything completely cleaned up. TVA does have a detailed report of what they've done up until now - you can see that report on their website www.tva.org.