...a "TVA Media" employee named Jessica Stone edited the report, which went through four drafts, because employees knew "that it would be seen by the public." Buttram confirmed that later drafts did not include language Buttram had used in the original draft, including his recommendation to make repairs "immediately."

Link...

"… inspection of the fly ash pond was the first he'd ever conducted and he had never even seen its design drawings."
Link...
Reading the report convinced me that the inspector didn't know what he was looking at.

Obviously, TVA didn't take the engineering inspection seriously; assigning an untrained engineer, putting the inspection in the desk from October to December (Obviously, the boss didn't put this very high on the junior engineer's priorities.)
If he had even read the PowerPoint from the latest fix-up, he would have known that the purpose of the drains was to assure the water level was below to outside face of the dike. The piezometers were to assure that it was, not to drain off a little of the water, but the water level he observed WAS above the level of the dike, which he noted.
Obviously, some of the south end of the west dike moved west across Swan Pond Rd, not north as the Root Cause Analysis states. Link...

This information is being made public through depositions. The judge made it clear on day one that he would not allow TVA to tie up his courtroom for years to come and proclaimed these cases would be processed expeditiously. The local thought processes of lets settle for less now so we don't have to drag this out in court for 10 years was a marketing ploy by TVA which locals bought into. Federal court moves at lightening speed compared to state court.