A class action complaint was filed Jan. 9 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, in which the class seeks medical monitoring, remediation of heavy metal and coal ash contamination and compensatory damages for property damage and economic losses related to the Dec. 22 failure of a Tennessee Valley Authority coal ash slurry reservoir near Kingston, Tenn.

The Rev. Mary Margaret Blanchard is the lead plaintiff in the putative class action. She alleges that more than a billion gallons of coal ash sludge escaped from the Kingston Fossil Plant lagoon into the Clinch River and Emory River. The rushing sludge swept away roads, railroad tracks, houses, boats, docks, vehicles and trees, Blanchard says. The tidal wave deposited sludge in the Emory River and six bays of the Watts Bar Reservoir where she and class members live and own property. The sludge contains arsenic, thallium, antimony, lead, cadmium, mercury, selenium, boron, barium, cobalt and molybdenum, according to Blanchard.

Blanchard seeks to represent a class of more than 100 property owners and residents. She seeks compensatory damages in excess of $5 million for personal and property damage, loss of quality of life, business disruption, out-of-pocket expenses and medical monitoring; injunctive relief in the form of an order instructing TVA to remove the coal ash sludge from the property of class members and to remediate contamination of surface waters and other land.

Blanchard also seeks environmental monitoring of the class area for the toxic components of coal ash and an order instructing TVA to prevent coal ash from migrating onto their properties and to adequately contain the coal ash generated by the Kingston Fossil Plant.