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The coal ash spill from the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) coal-firing plant in Kingston, Tenn., may have left some east Tennessee residents homeless and dampened the livelihoods of local business owners, but contractors participating in the massive cleanup will make millions off the deal.
Environmental lawsuits can be complex and take years to resolve because the damages may take decades to surface, says Gregory Button, a University of Tennessee anthropologist who studies environmental disasters such as the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. That means the fallout from last year’s Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) coal ash spill that blanketed a neighboring community with toxic material in what some call the nation’s largest environmental disaster of its kind, could linger for years.
More pollutants and carcinogens were dumped into waterways near the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Kingston, Tenn., plant in 2008 than were released to waterways by the entire U.S. power industry in 2007, according to a report by the Environmental Protection Agency. The report showed as much as 140,000 pounds of arsenic and nearly 60,000 pounds of metals poured into the Emory River, which runs near the plant.
The report was released ahead of congressional hearings this week on the coal ash spill in Kingston that occurred last year. That spill dumped about 5.4 million cubic yards of coal ash on to 300 acres of rural land and into nearby waterways, and prompted the Environmental Protection Agency to investigate the safety of coal ash and the facilities that store the waste.
“How do you spell relief? COAL ASH,” says Perry County, Alabama Commissioner Albert Turner, Jr., in remarks prepared for a hearing of the House Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment. Turner testified this week about how the historically poor and black county is benefiting from shipments of coal ash recovered from the east Tennessee community where it spilled from a neighboring coal-firing plant. The problem is residents of Perry County are more apt to call the arrangement a nightmare rather than a boon to the community.
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is clearing coal ash that spilled into the Emory River faster than originally anticipated, shipping it to a landfill in Alabama by the railcar load. The recovered coal ash is part of a more than billion-gallon spill from an impoundment pond at the TVA’s Kingston, Tenn., coal-firing plant last December.
That spill, considered one of the largest environmental disasters in U.S. history, destroyed homes, damaged property, sickened residents, and left a deep scar on the county’s public image. Now that toxic material recovered from the river is shipping to the poor and predominantly black county in Alabama in epic speed.
Nine months after more than a billion gallons of coal ash tumbled from an impoundment pond at a Kingston, Tenn., coal-firing plant and created one of the nation’s largest environmental disasters, only one-third of the total sludge has been removed from the Emory River, leaving behind 2 million cubic yards in the river and 2.4 million cubic yards in Swan Pond Creek and neighboring land. The cleanup effort is still months – maybe years – away from completion and is expected to cost the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) at least $1 billion by the time it is complete.
A new federal survey reports that 34 coal ash impoundment ponds at U.S. coal burning utilities have spilled their toxic contents in the past decade, according to the Associated Press. Many of the spills were minor compared to last December’s tragic spill at an east Tennessee plant that dumped more than a billion gallons of coal ash sludge on to 300 acres of a neighboring community, knocked homes from their foundations, destroyed property, and contaminated nearby waterways. That spill at a Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) plant spurred the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to survey all coal-burning sites in the country, sites that are not regulated by the federal government.
Residents of east Tennessee affected by last December’s coal ash spill are still reeling six months after the toxic sludge poured down on their community, changing their lives forever. They expressed their anger at a meeting this week with Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) officials at Roane State Community College.
Forty-four coal ash impoundments similar to the Kingston, Tennessee pond that spilled over and poured 1.1 billion gallons of toxic material on to an east Tennessee community, are located around the country and could cause death or disaster to residents living nearby if a similar spill happened. However the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says it will not disclose where those coal ash impoundment ponds are located.
Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU), a consortium of academic institutions, will begin addressing the health concerns of residents affected by last December’s coal ash spill at the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Fossil Plant in Kingston, Tennessee, by late summer, according to a report by Knox News. The consortium was tapped to head up the response and handle the work. TVA will be monitoring the implementation of the guidelines and has agreed to pay medical expenses for anyone whose health problems are determined to be caused by the coal ash.
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