There will be a community meeting in Claxton on Tuesday evening to discuss the closure of the Bull Run Fossil Plant. The Tennessee Valley Authority board of directors agreed in February to close the coal-burning plant by 2023.
The meeting is scheduled from 6-8 p.m. Tuesday, April 2, in the Claxton Community Center at 1071 Edgemoor Road. It will include Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment (SOCM) and nonprofit partners, a press release said.
“The meeting’s purpose is to give concerned residents of the community around TVA’s Bull Run Fossil Plant an opportunity to connect and to share their concerns, hopes, and questions around TVA’s recent decision to retire the Bull Run coal plant by 2023 or sooner,” the press release said. “Now is the time to begin a dialog to protect our community’s common interests.”
Organizers said they are urging environmental engineers, scientists, community leaders, officials from Anderson County, the cities of Oak Ridge and Clinton, Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, and others to be available to share information and expertise, provide support, and address residents’ questions on coal ash, air pollution, health, worker transition, economic impacts, safe demolition and site reclamation, future site use, and property values.
“We’ve been canvassing citizens living close to Bull Run and inviting them to the meeting,” the press release said.
It said most residents have been primarily concerned about Bull Run’s leaking coal ash, and most also welcomed the anticipated closure.
“Property values near the plant, and to some extent in Oak Ridge, Clinton, and elsewhere, might be significantly improved if TVA justly cleans up Bull Run’s coal ash and restores the site opposite our otherwise beautiful parks,” the press release said. “Our ability to attract and keep both residents and businesses may also be impacted.”
Anderson County Commissioner Catherine Denenberg is chairing an Intergovernmental Committee on Bull Run and Y-12 contamination, the press release said. She said commissioners are determined that TVA properly remediates Bull Run’s coal ash, the release said.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
See previous stories on the Bull Run Fossil Plant here.
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