Valley So Low

For more than 50 years, a power plant in the small town of Kingston, Tennessee, burned fourteen thousand tons of coal a day, gradually creating a mountain of ashen waste 60 feet high and covering 84 acres, contained only by an earthen embankment. In 2008, just before Christmas, that embankment broke, unleashing a lethal wave of coal sludge that covered 300 acres, damaged nearly 30 homes, and precipitating a cleanup effort that would cost more than $1 billion--and the lives of more than 50 cleanup workers who inhaled ​​the toxins it released.​

Jim Scott, a local personal-injury lawyer, agreed to represent the workers after they began to fall ill. That meant doing legal battle against the Tennessee Valley Authority, a colossal, federally owned power company that had once been a famous cornerstone of President Franklin D. Roosevelt​'​​s New Deal. Scott and ​his hastily assembled team​​ gathered extensive evidence of malfeasance: threats against workers; retaliatory firings; disregarded safety precautions; and test results, either hidden or altered, that would have revealed harmful concentrations of arsenic, lead, and radioactive materials at the cleanup site. At every stage, Scott--outmanned and nearly broke--had to overcome legal hurdles constructed by TVA and the firm it hired to ​​help ​execute the cleanup. He grew especially close to one of the victims, whose swift decline only intensified his ​hunger for justice. As the incriminating evidence mounted, the workers seemed to have everything on their side, including the truth​--​​​and yet, was it all enough to prevail?

The lawsuit that Scott pursued on the workers​'​​ behalf was about their illnesses, no doubt. But it was also about whether blue-collar employees could beat the C-suite; if self-described ​"​​​hillbilly lawyers​"​​ could beat elite corporate defense attorneys; and whether strong evidence could beat fat pocketbooks. With ​​suspense and ​rich ​detail, Jared Sullivan's thrilling account lays bare the ​casual brutality of the American justice system​​, ​and ​call​s​​​ ​into​​ question whether--and how--the federal government has failed its people.