"HARRIMAN, Tenn. — Streets of empty houses sit with dark windows around the glittering coves of the Emory River. A glance away, giant earth-moving machines scoop, pull and push ash, the unwelcome trespasser that nearly three years ago belched from a failed landfill to ooze over 300 acres and the river. As the machines reshape the muck, massive tankers continually sprinkle water to keep dangerous silica floaters out of the air and out of people’s lungs."

"One by one, more than 180 homeowners packed up and left, saying they had come to fear that even if they survived health threats they could barely pronounce, their land values and financial futures could not."

Pam Sohn reports for the Chattanooga Times Free Press October 3, 2011. [2]