reproduction and hatchling performance in freshwater turtles associated with a remediated coal flyash spill in 2008 an impoundment retaining wall failed at the tennessee valley authoritys coal burning plant in kingston tennessee releasing large quantities of coalfly ash into the emory river following extensive remediation of the spill we captured in 2011 and 2012 gravid turtles of multiple species in three rivers two impacted and one reference within the vicinity of the spill to determine whether there was evidence of the spill influencing reproduction there was little evidence that river of origin affected reproductive output hatching success hatchling size or hatchling locomotor performance although hatching success and hatchling righting ability of pond sliders trachemys scripta was higher in our reference river than in the emory or clinch river respectively these differences could not be attributed to differences in individual element concentrations in turtle tissues and effect sizes were relatively small for example hatching success was reduced by 11 in the spill zone compared to the reference river an effect that is unlikely substantial enough to influence local population dynamics in light of turtle life history our results suggest that residual contamination that remains in the emoryclinch system after its remediation poses low risk of excessive element exposure and limited adverse reproductive effects to freshwater turtles future monitoring could reveal whether the observed reduction in hatching success gradually attenuates with time or whether any longterm effects of chronic exposure to lowlevel contamination emerge over time