A 35-page booklet distributed in a public meeting by the Tennessee Valley Authority about coal ash is filled with “lies” and misleading information, according to coal ash researchers.
The booklet, titled “Know the Facts: Coal Ash,” did not include any TVA branding or author information, but the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy says TVA employees distributed the pamphlets at a public comment session on the agency’s coal ash remediation plan for one of its coal plants in Tennessee.
Avner Vengosh, chair of environmental quality at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, called the booklet “unbelievable” and part of a “misleading public campaign.”
“It’s scary,” Vengosh told Inside Climate News after reviewing the booklet. “It’s like alternative reality.”
Vengosh leads a research group at Duke that has published numerous peer-reviewed papers on coal ash contamination in the environment. Coal ash, or coal combustion residuals (CCR), is the solid material left over after burning coal. It contains potentially toxic levels of substances like mercury, arsenic and lead that are associated with human health problems, including cancer.
