As Roane Co. residents approach the one year anniversary of the Kingston coal ash disaster and after nearly a year of waiting for answers from TVA, the community is getting organized. The Roane County Community Advisory Group held its first meeting last night. RoaneViews has  this report.

CAG's agenda for last night's meeting was to discuss reports on the TVA Work Plan and the Community Involvement Plan by a representative from EPA Technical Assistance Services for Communities (TASC). The TASC review and comments highlight specific areas of concern in both reports.

The mission of the CAG is to "provide a public forum for community members to present and discuss their needs and concerns related to the TVA coal ash release and assist in the decision making process for the cleanup."

Links:

• Roane County Community Advisory Group
• TASC review and comments re. TVA Work Plan
• TASC review and comments re. Community Involvement Plan
• EPA Kingston Fly Ash Release website
• TVA Kingston Recovery website

UPDATE: RoaneViews reports on another topic of discussion at last night's meeting. Not only is it outrageous that TVA is responsible for its own water quality testing that could affect the outcome of numerous lawsuits against them, and that independent testing is either ignored or simply not allowed, it's also pretty outrageous that residents have to beg TVA to do the testing in the first place and that the state isn't stepping in to make them do it.