It seems like at the very least TVA ought to immediately relocate the 43 families directly impacted to other suitable living quarters (not motel rooms) because they now admit the cleanup will take years, not weeks. And, let them move back in when/if it becomes safe to do so.

The "boil water" directive was only issued for the folks who were affected by the broken waterline.

TVA screwed up enough without us putting things on them they actually got right.

I have more questions than answers on the toxicity of the sludge. I still think the dangerous stuff goes out the stacks and over to the smokies and North Carolina.

Yes, that was not directed at TVA. It was directed at "other officials" and local media who repeated it without explaining who was affected or why.

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Why has Governor Bredesen not declared this a natural disaster? This is beyond the ability of ratepayers to pay for. Federal monies are required. It is too big. Where are Senators Alexander and Corker?

I don't see how this is any different than a flood, hurricane, or a tornado. Was it not cost by torrential rain? No cause has been established. And there is no evidence to examine.

There is 7 million tons of coal ash to be move to lined landfills. If the cleanup is $250 to $300 million dollars, how can it be expected to pass that on to ratepayers? TVA had net income in 2006 of $325 million dollars.

How many businesses will go under if the ratepayers have to pay for the cleanup? For example, will Volkswagen still come to Chattanooga if they have to pay much much more than they planned for electricity?

Bump: Arsenic threatens wells:

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Great. Just great.

Sooner or later they will have to tell us what this will cost.

The KNS buried this at the bottom of the latest news story in the "Business Section", you know what that means, "No cost estimates are yet available. But a cleanup in a similar Pennsylvania spill in 2005 into the Delaware River — one-tenth the size of the Kingston spill — cost $37 million for a utility there to remediate."

Uh, $37 million time 10 is...YOU CAN NOT BE SERIOUS.

Um, shouldn't that be a headline?

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The KNS, the best media money can buy.

Sooner or later they will have to tell us what this will cost.

The only thing you seem to be bothered with by this whole disaster, besides all of the conspiracy opportunities that must really delight you, is the immediate dollar cost to your pocket. Then you turn right around and boast about how wonderfully cheap coal power is.

Coal is cheap only because of its externalized costs and risks as exposed by this spill and are otherwise unnoticed by most of the public. People like you are still oblivious to the most severe of those costs and risks, such as GHG emissions and mountain top removal mining. Those are the real scandals in the long run.