Today was spent preparing for the first public meeting organized by local residents and United Mountain Defense volunteers for the residents of Swan Pond Rd. United Mountain Defense volunteers awoke bright and early and headed down to the American Legion Hall in Harriman, TN. The meeting was set to begin at 1 PM and last until 4 PM.

We had invited people to bring a dish for a potluck style meal. United Mountain Defense volunteers were greeted by local coal impacted residents already hard at work at 10 AM. We began to set up chairs borrowed from a local church and prepared the space for the mass of people we hoped would attend. By 12 PM there were 42 cups of coffee brewed with another 42 brewing. There was a bustle of last minute set up details before the crowds began to arrive. By 12:30 PM the local Swan Pond organizers began to greet the earliest community members who came to attend the meeting. By 12:45 PM the American Legion Hall was filling up fast. The sitting room began to fill up quickly by this point. Sons and grandsons told their mothers and grandmothers to find a seat before they were all gone. By 1 PM the hall was packed and the meeting began.

There were short introductions of the first two speakers and the United Mountain Defense volunteers who had been working on the ground since day 1 of the spill. In an effort to make residents feel more comfortable with sharing their feelings and concerns there was a no media policy in place. United Mountain Defense did get permission from the residents to video tape the speakers so that the information could be shared with impacted residents who could not make it to the meeting. Everyone agreed that this was an important role that United Mountain Defense could play for those residents.

The first speaker was Lisa Graves-Marcucci from Forward Township, PA. Her community had a coal ash disaster back in 2005. They didn’t have any game plan to follow to resolve the issue, so they researched and created one which other communities could use. The information that she shared was very informative. She suggested that the community members should all be wearing respirators and taking as many precautions as possible in order to protect their health. She also suggested that the Swan Pond residents sign a petition to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry in order to get an outside regulatory agency other than TVA, EPA, and TDEC involved in the investigation to help provide some more oversight of the situation. She suggested that the residents request TVA’s Material Safety Data Sheets for Coal Fly Ash. She also suggested that workers at TVA wear respirators and protective gear and that these residents should be provided the same level of protection as the TVA workers.

The next speaker was Dr. Dan Voltz. He is a scientist who has been studying coal fly ash for years now. He gave a presentation about some of the dangers that coal ash poses to the local residents through their well and spring water and air. He encouraged them to err on the side of safety and suggested that he would not enter the area without proper safety equipment including a respirator.When the Dr. finished speaking we had a brainstorming session with the whole crowd to figure out what were their major concerns. After the brainstorming we broke the crowd into four smaller groups for further discussion. The discussion groups worked through the brainstormed questions, gave a voice and written comments to their concerns, and began working on solutions to the problems their community was now facing.

The small discussion group that I facilitated provided a very informative interaction. After being on the ground since Dec 22, 2008 I began to see that I had a lot in common with many of these local residents, most notably sore throats, itchy eyes, and stress from the coal ash disaster.I think that the reality of the situation became a little more real to me today after hearing the presentations of Lisa Graves-Marcucci and Dr. Voltz. I am going to start wearing my respirator from now on whenever I am in the immediate area of this disaster site.

After the small group discussions we had report backs from one coal impacted representative of each discussion group. These brave souls spoke in front of the video camera. They expressed the concerns of the residents in their groups. Out of the four speakers there were many of the same concerns and some different solutions. I could hear the voices of local organizers bursting through the seams of the concerned citizens as they called for mobilization of their neighbors who were not present at the meeting. There were calls of not forgetting or being pacified into submission by TVA. These residents were calling for more regulation of TVA. They were calling for more protection of their health. They were calling for change and for more community focus.
The next presentation was made by a lawyer who had represented the community members of Forward Township, PA after their coal ash disaster. He had a strong personality that came through during his description of how his law firm would “make TVA do the right thing.” He stated that TVA would be forced to follow the laws of TN. He suggested hiring outside consultants to observe and micromanage TVA’s cleanup efforts to make sure they did the job correctly.

The final presentation was made by a panel of lawyers whom United Mountain Defense’s staff attorney, Chris Irwin, had screened to make sure that each law firm was not trying to pull a fast one on these stressed coal impacted residents. It was an interesting discussion with each lawyer advertising themselves in the best light possible. Even though some of these lawyers were from huge law firms with lots of money they did not know much about the situation on the ground or the laws of TN. A few of the lawyers had worked with coal impacted residents of other states and had a better grasp on the situation. It was a good time for the community to compare and contrast the different lawyer’s approaches as they had to sell their services to a large audience of potential clients. This approach made a few of the lawyers uncomfortable as they were used to one on one interactions where they could wine and dine their clients behind closed doors. The approach that United Mountain Defense provided gave all the power to the coal impacted residents to decide what questions to ask and collectively learn from the lawyers and each other.

The meeting ran till nearly 5 PM and people became a bit anxious to leave and make dinner or feed their livestock before it became dark. Upon dispersal there was an excitement in the air at the success of the event. This REAL public meeting was so different from the emergency Kingston City Council Meeting that happened last Sunday. 220 coal impacted residents got a chance to learn some detailed information about the possible impacts from coal fly ash on their health, water, and environment. They got a chance to speak their minds. They got a chance to hear what their neighbors thought about the disaster. They got a chance to see they were not alone. There was talk of next steps and of knocking on their neighbors doors to let them know about the possible dangers. There was talk of not letting the country forget TVA’s disaster in Harriman. There was talk of MAKING TVA clean it up correctly. I think that for the first time I saw a community that was becoming mobilized. It was an important day. I feel fortunate to have been a part of it.

If you are a resident impacted by TVA's coal ash disaster please contact us at 865 689 2778.

Please make donations of money and resources to United Mountain Defense at P.O. Box 20363 Knoxville, TN 37920 or online at our PayPal account. 

Ed note:  Matt Landon, a full time volunteer with United Mountain Defense, is reporting from the ground in Harriman, TN.  Because of his chaotic schedule, we've just received a batch of diary posts from the past week, which we'll be re-publishing in chronological order. Here are his first and second posts. His next post is here.