Planning for Crisis Communications

By Kennedy Maize

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A Recent Example of Failure to Communicate

The most recent example of how not to respond to a crisis may be the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA’s) coal ash pond failure. TVA has a long history of not being able to respond to a PR crisis, and this ash pond failure is the latest example. The agency, part of the federal government, has long been defensive, secretive, and disdainful of its public information obligations. It has no shareholders and is entirely beholden to customers and taxpayers. TVA touts that as an advantage, but the agency’s history suggests that its structure is a way to avoid public scrutiny. But it attracts public scorn when things go wrong.

When the TVA waste dam holding back a semi-aqueous lake of coal ash failed last December, inundating a large portion of the local community, it set off hyperbolic reporting in the daily and monthly press. It was clear to many veteran journalists that the New York Times was hoping to use its reporting on the ash spill as a launch-pad for journalistic awards. That was not surprising, given the high profile of TVA and its history of arrogance and obfuscation on environmental issues.

An ash-holding pond at Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston Fossil Plant spilled an estimated 1.7 million cubic yards of fly ash and water over about 400 acres when it failed on December 22, 2008. Courtesy: Tennessee Valley Authority

TVA insisted in the 1970s that it was not subject to Clean Air Act rules, because it was a federal agency. In the 1980s, the NRC closed down the agency’s entire fleet of five nuclear power plants because TVA thumbed its nose at NRC regulations. The plants were shut for years.

In response to that history, TVA, in the 1980s and 1990s, pledged to improve its regulatory attitude. For the most part, that happened. The agency’s generating plants complied with federal standards. Its nukes dramatically improved safety and efficiency standards as the NRC allowed them to restart.

But the traditional responses returned with the ash spill. My old friend John Moulton, TVA spokesman, was caught goofy-footed when the ash dam failed. He tried to defend the agency, but it was clear that TVA had no communications plan for how to deal with such a crisis. The agency didn’t anticipate that ash ponds were a potential danger and hadn’t thought about what would happen if an ash dam failed, either in engineering or communications terms.

Veteran reporters on coal issues suspected that the general press coverage of the ash pond failure was overblown. That was the case. Its public health implications were slim, according to many analyses, but it was a large, visible, and easily scary event.

TVA did little to deflect the coverage and point out the hyperbole in the press accounts in time to make a difference. Ultimately, the Obama administration made the TVA waste pond failure a hook for more regulation from the EPA, which may not be justified by the facts on the ground.

If TVA had perused the PRNews book, it may have anticipated the essential problem—what are all the things that can go wrong with our power system, and how can we respond to them?—and had a plan in place to deal with the issue (as part of a generic round of issues). It’s not obvious that TVA would have identified the ash pond failure as a potential problem, but it might have. The mere exercise of thinking through PR-disaster planning may have helped the agency respond.

The PRNews guidebook may have helped TVA cope with the onslaught of coverage. It could have directed the giant public power agency’s walk through the various aspects of identifying potential communications flash points that come with generating and distributing electricity. The key message of the book—written by PRNews staff and outside contributors—is that it is crucial to look at all of a business’s processes and try to identify how to respond if they mess up or fail. It’s not an exact science, but it is a management exercise worth the cost.

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