Bredesen Visits Spill

By Angela Hatton

Kingston, TN – Tennessee's governor promises greater oversight of coal ash retention ponds after touring damage from a 1-billion-gallon spill. Governor Phil Bredesen said yesterday he has no complaints with the Tennessee Valley Authority. TVA operates the Kingston power plant where a pond burst last week, pouring ashy sludge over 300 acres and into a river. But Bredesen vows state environmental regulators will be "looking over their shoulder." The governor says the state is launching immediate inspections of all other TVA retention ponds and a review of pond regulations. The state will conduct daily tests of water sources for the cities of Kingston and Rockwood until the threat of arsenic and heavy metal contamination has passed.