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Property owner near TVA ash spill `living in hell'

KINGSTON, Tenn. — Ten months after millions of cubic yards of coal ash spilled from a Tennessee Valley Authority dam, Gary Topmiller and his wife, Pam, said they are trapped in their home across the Emory River from the site and "living in hell."

A retired millwright, Topmiller said Tuesday they are battling health problems and the TVA won't fairly compensate them so they can move from their 3-year-old house on the river and rebuild.

Topmiller was among several people who spoke to reporters about their problems since Dec. 22, when a breach in an earthen dike at TVA's Kingston Fossil Plant sent 5.4 million cubic yards of ash into the Emory River and onto private property.

TVA spokeswoman Barbara Martocci said the utility "has continued to work with the community since the day of the ash spill" and that effort will continue.

A half dozen property owners with complaints that TVA has treated them or others unfairly spoke to the media under a canopy during a torrential rain outside the utility's Kingston Outreach office after Martocci told them they could not speak to reporters inside, though there appeared to be an abundance of space.

"We're not having a press conference in this building," she said.

Martocci said the news conference would interfere with previously scheduled time for representatives of the TVA and other government agencies to meet with local residents harmed by the spill. She said the citizens' news conference was scheduled after they "found out we were having this availability."

Martocci said hundreds of damage claims have been filed and numerous lawsuits and they are being dealt with individually.

"The claims process is still open," she said.

TVA officials said they expect to get the ash out of the river by spring but the total cleanup, projected to cost $1 billion, is expected to take years.

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