Kingston Fossil Plant coal fly ash slurry spill

The Kingston Fossil Plant is located on a peninsula at the junction of the Emory River (to the north) and Clinch River (to the south and east), just over upstream from the latter's mouth along the Tennessee River. Watts Bar Dam, located along the Tennessee downstream from the mouth of the Clinch, impounds a reservoir (Watts Bar Lake) that spans a stretch of the Tennessee (to Fort Loudoun Dam), the lower of the Clinch (to Melton Hill Dam), and the lower of the Emory. The plant, originally known as the Kingston Steam Plant, began operations in 1954, primarily to provide electricity to atomic energy installations at nearby Oak Ridge. The plant contains nine units with a combined generating capacity of 1,398 megawatts and burns about 14,000 tonnes of coal every day. It was the largest coal-fired power plant in the world when it was completed. Fly ash is the fine particulate matter produced by the combustion of coal, which is collected rather than allowing it to escape into the atmosphere. Once ash collection is complete in the wet disposal method, it is mixed with water and pumped into a retaining pond, known as the main ash pond at the Kingston Plant, where the ash gradually settled to the bottom. Once the particulate matter settled out, the water was pumped to the stilling pond, where the remaining solids settled, At the time of the spill, the dredge cells contained a watery slurry of fly ash generated by the burning of finely ground coal at the power plant. TVA had reportedly known about the dangers of using wet storage ponds for coal ash since a 1969 spill in Virginia in which coal ash seeped into the Clinch River and killed large numbers of fish. An October 2008 inspection report had identified a small leak in the faulty wall, but the report was not yet complete at the time of the spill. ==Event==

Dike breach and spill The spill began sometime between midnight and 1 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on December 22, 2008, when the dike surrounding the ash containment dewatering pond broke. The breach occurred at the northwest corner of the dewatering pond, overlooking the Swan Pond Creek spillway. The spill consisted of an initial large wave which lasted for approximately one minute, followed by a series of smaller consecutive waves of breaking away and sliding that occurred over a period of approximately one hour. TVA and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) initially estimated that the spill released of sludge, which is gray in color. After an aerial survey, the official estimate was more than tripled to on December 25, 2008. Effects The spill covered surrounding land with up to of sludge. Although the land surrounding the power plant is largely rural, the spill caused a mudflow wave of water and ash that covered 12 homes, It also washed out a road, downed trees, broke a water main, and destroyed power lines. Though 22 residences were evacuated, However, research shows that the event had significant negative effects on mental health for people affected and in the area. It was the largest industrial spill in United States history, more than three times the size of the Martin County coal slurry spill of 2000, which spilled of slurry. and about 10 times greater than the volume released in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the largest oil spill in history. s, which are a component of the ash. The spill was reported to have killed and buried multiple deer and at least one dog, and ejected fish from the Emory River onto the river bank as far as from the shore. Large numbers of dead fish were reported as far as the Tennessee River and other area tributaries in the aftermath of the spill. The Kingston Fossil Plant had received of rain between December 1 and December 22, plus on November 29 and 30. This rain combined with temperatures were identified by TVA as factors that contributed to the failure of the earthen embankment. ==Response==

Response from TVA and government officials The day after the spill, TVA released a statement acknowledging the spill and apologizing for its damage to nearby homes. Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen toured the spill site on December 31. The United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, which oversees the TVA, held a hearing on January 8 to examine the disaster. Environmental activist Erin Brockovich visited the site on January 8 and spoke with residents affected by the spill. Water quality and efforts to stop the spill Immediately after the spill, the EPA and Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) began testing the water quality of the area affected by the spill. The day after the spill Tennessee Emergency Management Agency indicated that barriers would be constructed to stop the ash from reaching the Tennessee River. By December 30 the TVA had announced it was requesting the assistance of the Army Corps of Engineers to dredge the ash-filled Emory River to restore navigation. On January 1 the TVA announced that rather than attempting to clear away all of the slurry, they would be spraying seed, straw, and mulch on top of much of it to prevent dust scattering and erosion. In response to independent attempts at sampling of the water quality and the taking of photos, the TVA illegally detained, for approximately one hour, two members of the Knoxville-based environmental organization United Mountain Defense who were traversing public land in the area of the spill and warned three other individuals that any attempt to enter the public waterway would lead to prosecution. On December 26 TDEC stated that it was satisfied with the water quality in the wake of the spill but that it would continue to examine and deal with the potential for chronic health effects. Coal ash issues The spill immediately reignited the debate about the regulation of coal ash. In response to a video that showed dead fish on the Clinch River, which had received runoff from the spill, Francis stated "in terms of toxicity, until an analysis comes in, you can't call it toxic." He continued by saying that "it does have some heavy metals within it, but it's not toxic or anything." Lisa Evans, an attorney for the environmental group Earthjustice, spoke out against the government, accusing them of lax regulations on the issue. She also blamed the electric power and coal industries for ineffective safeguards, citing other similar cases. She stated the issue of proper disposal of coal ash is not an extremely complicated problem and that utilities know how to solve it. Thomas J. FitzGerald, the director of the environmental group Kentucky Resources Council and an expert on coal waste, reported that the ash should have been buried in lined landfills to prevent toxins leaching into the soil and groundwater, as recommended in a 2006 EPA report, and stated that he found it hard to believe that the state of Tennessee would have approved the ash disposal sites at the plant as a permanent disposal site. The TVA released an inventory of the plant's byproducts on December 29; it included arsenic, lead, barium, chromium, and manganese. Because the pond contained decades worth of ash from coal of several different types, it was believed that the area of the spill may have contained isolated patches of higher toxicity. Also on January 14 Nick J. Rahall, a U.S. Representative from West Virginia and the chairman of the United States House Committee on Natural Resources, introduced a bill to regulate coal ash disposal sites across the United States. That year, TVA committed to switching all of the ash storage facilities at their coal-fired plants over to dry byproduct methods, which would reduce the chances of another spill. This was completed by 2022 at a cost of $2 billion. At the time of the spill, five TVA-operated plants used this method, while Kingston and another five used a wet process with ponds. Some of the provisions in the 2015 CCR regulation were challenged in litigation, and the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit remanded certain portions of the regulation to EPA for further rulemaking. The EPA published a final CCR "Part A" regulation on August 28, 2020, requiring all unlined ash ponds to retrofit with liners or close by April 11, 2021. Some facilities may apply to obtain additional time—up to 2028—to find alternatives for managing ash wastes before closing their surface impoundments. EPA published its "CCR Part B" rule on November 12, 2020, which allows certain facilities to use an alternative liner, based on a demonstration that human health and the environment will not be affected. Pursuant to the CCR Part B regulation, several facilities applied, within a December 14, 2020 deadline, for alternate liner demonstrations. Some of those applications were subsequently withdrawn, and in 2023 EPA proposed to deny six of the remaining applications. In January 2025 EPA denied the application for the Coronado Generating Station in Arizona, but in February 2026 announced that it will consider an approval for the facility, based on new information. As of early 2026 EPA has not made final determinations on other applications. ==Cleanup==

The EPA first estimated that the spill would take four to six weeks to clean up; however, Taylor said the cleanup could take months and possibly years. As of June 2009, six months following the spill, only 3% of the spill had been cleaned and was estimated to cost between $675 and $975 million to clean, according to the TVA. TVA hired California-based Jacobs Engineering to clean up the spill. The cleanup was accomplished under guidelines set by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act. During the first phase of the cleanup, known as the time-critical phase, over were removed within a year of the spill. This phase allowed the removal of ash from the river to be accelerated by 75% over original expectations. During this phase, the ash was safely transported to a permanent, lined, and leachate collecting facility in Perry County, Alabama, called Arrowhead landfill. The Emory River was reopened in late spring 2010. The time-critical phase removed 90% of the ash located in the Emory River. The next phase, which began in August 2010, removed the remaining ash from the Swan Pond Embayment of Watts Bar Reservoir. About of material, which mixed with the remains of leaked material from atomic energy production operations at Oak Ridge National Laboratory during the Cold War, was left in the rivers. The final phase of the cleanup consisted of assessments on the health and environmental effects of leaving this ash in the waterways. The cleanup was completed in 2015 and cost approximately $1.134 billion. During the cleanup TVA built a new protective levee around the pond, covered the ash pond with a earthquake-proof clay layer, and replanted the areas damaged by the spill. They also made more than $43 million in-lieu-of-tax payments to the local governments to compensate for lost property and sales tax revenue. Shortly after the cleanup was complete, TVA began selling off some of the land that they had acquired around the spill. ==Legal actions==

Legal actions and criticism of TVA and EPA On December 23, 2008, the environmental group Greenpeace asked for a criminal investigation into the incident, focusing on whether the TVA could have prevented the spill. On December 30, 2008, a group of landowners filed suit against the TVA for $165 million in Tennessee state court. Also on December 30 the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy announced its intention to sue the TVA under the federal Clean Water Act and RCR. On August 23, 2012, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, representing more than 800 plaintiffs, found TVA liable for the spill. Judge Thomas A. Varlan issued an opinion stating that "TVA is liable for the ultimate failure of North Dike which flowed, in part, from TVA's negligent nondiscretionary conduct." The ruling ultimately found that TVA did not build the holding ponds according to the initial plan and failed to train its employees on how to properly inspect the dikes surrounding the ash ponds, leading ultimately to a failure to maintain the facility to prevent a rupture of the dikes. Some critics of the EPA's response claim that the choice of how to deal with the spilled coal ash was an act of environmental racism. Roane County's population is more than 94% White, and the EPA shipped the toxic coal ash south to Uniontown, Alabama, which has a population that is more than 90% African American. Robert D. Bullard, a champion for the victims of environmental racism, claimed that the EPA's response was a prioritization of the health of Caucasian Americans over the health of African Americans. In 2018, the EPA dismissed a complaint by the residents of Uniontown that charged that the landfill was in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Health effects on workers Numerous workers suffered health effects in the years following the spill at the cleanup site. As early as 2012, workers began to report illnesses that they believed were caused by the cleanup, In 2013, 50 workers and their families filed a lawsuit against contractor Jacobs Engineering. This lawsuit was dismissed by Judge Varlan the following year. The testimony of chemist Dan Nichols was instrumental in helping the workers win their case. In 2009, Nichols contacted the attorneys for a group of Roane County residents and turned over an original lab report from TDEC concerning uranium levels, which he described the levels as "extremely high so as to be alarming" in a 2020 affidavit. In 2017, Nichols read a news story indicating one of the workers, Craig Wilkinson, had tested positive for “unusually high levels of Uranium” in his urine. This revelation caused Nichols to contact the workers legal team about the original lab reports with high uranium levels and link this report with the unusually high levels of uranium in Wilkinson’s body. Nichols’ affidavit states he had a working relationship with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and indicates he was appointed to the FBI’s Infragard program as the Tennessee Water Supply Sector Council Person in 2005 and the initial analytical reports showed coal ash levels at the spill location of Uranium as high as 2,000 ppm but the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation altered these reports to average less than 3 ppm uranium. Despite the ruling, Jacobs Engineering has maintained that it acted appropriately. Tom Bock, the top Jacobs safety officer on-site, claimed that many of the accusations about the cleanup effort and safety of the workers were false or contained misinformation. An attorney for Jacobs Engineering also claimed that the company had not been found liable for the illnesses contracted by the workers. TVA has also denied wrongdoing in the case, but in September 2019 a TVA board member was reported to have told a U.S. Senate committee that he would not allow a member of his family to clean up coal ash without a dust mask. In what would have been phase two of the trial, the Kingston clean-up workers would have been able to seek damages. On May 23, 2023, it was announced that Jacobs Engineering, which had rebranded the previous year as Jacobs Solutions, had reached a final settlement with more than 200 workers. The terms of this settlement were kept confidential. It was also reported at this time that the workers had rejected at least three other settlement offers, including one for $35 million in late 2021. ==See also==