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LENOIR CITY -- Environmental advocate Erin Brockovich arrived Thursday with a New York City legal team at the billion-gallon coal sludge disaster in Tennessee, and a class-action lawsuit seems almost certain.

Brockovich, made famous by Julia Roberts' Oscar-winning performance in the 2000 eponymous movie, told a news conference she came because dozens of residents asked for her help in the wake of the Dec. 22 ash pond breach at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston Fossil Plant.

"And that is what we are going to do," said Robin Greenwald, who heads environmental litigation at Weitz & Luxenberg.

The Kingston City Council passed a resolution Tuesday urging residents to "delay engaging the services of mass tort lawyers in order to allow local governments ... to explore the possibility of negotiating a global settlement of all collective and individual injuries and damages."

Several nonprofit environmental groups have filed notice they will sue TVA on behalf of more than 40 residents to ensure a proper cleanup of the spill that dumped 5.4 million cubic yards of ash over nearly 300 acres, destroying three homes, damaging others and threatening water supplies.

But Brockovich said people want relief and answers now, particularly about the impact on their health.

"This is their lifestyle, their land, their family, their health and I think they have every right to speak up about what it is they want, what their fears are, what they believe without any retaliation whatsoever," Brockovich said.

"I wouldn't encourage this community to not talk. That is why I am here, because they want to talk," she said.

Kingston Mayor Troy Beets, who heads the community of 5,300 across the river from the coal plant, said Thursday he has nothing against residents hiring a lawyer later.

But he first wants to see if TVA President and CEO Tom Kilgore, Tennessee Sens. Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander and two congressmen will make good on their commitments to "help us."

"My personal feeling is that you get more out of someone when they want to help you than putting them in the position where they have to help you, or you are trying to make them help you," he said.

Brockovich and her team, which includes an environmental risk assessor and a chemical engineer, planned to visit the site and meet with residents in their homes Thursday, then do a helicopter flyover and hold a large public meeting Friday.

She said her team will collect its own water and soil samples. This would be in addition to testing already being done by TVA, the state Department of Environment and Conservation, the federal Environmental Protection Agency and independent environmental groups.

The 2000 movie celebrated Brockovich's role as a law firm employee who helped win a $333 million lawsuit in 1996 against Pacific Gas and Electric Co. for exposing Southern California residents to chromium in their drinking water.

"There are always similarities," Brockovich said when asked to compare that case with the TVA ash flood. "It is always concerning, when you have a disaster -- something that could have been prevented and it wasn't."

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