Family recovers after losing home in coal ash spill
May 29th, 2009 by Jennifer Walker-Journey
Janice James was upstairs in her home and getting ready for bed, having just enjoyed a day celebrating Christmas with family, when a cracking and popping noise caught her attention. She threw on an old sweatshirt and her husband’s boots, and grabbed a flashlight to see what the ruckus was. Could be a hail storm or a tornado, she thought. But when the light of her flashlight shined on the first floor of her home, she was stunned. “It was just covered in this ashy mud,” she told a WATE-TV reporter.
The sludge quickly surrounded her home and pushed her sunroom from her house. She was devastated and called her husband Perry for help. “It does make you realize that you’re not in control and how fast things can happen,” he said.
The sludge was part of the 1.1 billion gallons of coal ash that had broken loose from an impoundment pond at the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) coal-firing plant in Kingston, Tennessee, last December. The James’ home was just one of several that was destroyed when the sludge poured over 300 acres of the rural neighborhood and into the Emory River. They were told that rebuilding on the property would be impossible, so they packed up their belongings and left. The TVA put them up in a temporary rental home. Earlier this year the couple sold its property to the TVA, and says they are currently looking for a house in Knoxville.
Meanwhile, the TVA is involved in a massive cleanup to remove the toxic material from property in the area. Estimates put the cost of the cleanup at approximately $975 million.