Massive coal-ash spill causes river of sludge and controversy

KINGSTON, Tenn. — What may be the nation's largest spill of coal ash lay thick and largely untouched over hundreds of acres of land and waterways Wednesday after a dam broke this week, as officials and environmentalists argued over its potential toxicity.

Federal studies long have shown coal ash to contain significant quantities of heavy metals such as arsenic, lead and selenium, which can cause cancer and neurological problems. But with no official word on the dangers of the sludge in Tennessee, displaced residents spent Christmas Eve worried about their health and their property and wondering what to do.

The spill occurred at the Kingston Fossil Plant, a Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) generating plant about 40 miles west of Knoxville on the banks of the Emory River, which feeds into the Clinch and then the Tennessee River just downstream.

"They're giving their apologies, which don't mean very much," said Holly Schean, a waitress whose home, which she shared with her parents, had been swept off its foundation when millions of cubic yards of ash breached a retaining wall early Monday. The TVA has not declared the house uninhabitable, she said. "I don't need your apologies," she added. "I need information."

The spill reignited a debate over whether the federal government should regulate coal ash as a hazardous material. Similar ponds and mounds of ash exist at hundreds of coal plants nationwide.

The TVA has issued no warnings about the potential dangers of the spill, saying there was as yet no evidence of toxins. "Most of that material is inert," said Gilbert Francis Jr., a TVA spokesman. "It does have some heavy metals within it, but it's not toxic or anything."

He said contaminants in water samples taken near the spill site and at the intake for the town of Kingston, six miles downstream, were within acceptable levels.

But a draft report last year by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found that fly ash, a byproduct of burning coal to produce electricity, contains significant amounts of carcinogens and retains the heavy metal present in coal in far higher concentrations. The report found that the concentrations of arsenic to which people might be exposed through drinking water contaminated by fly ash could increase cancer risks several hundredfold.

In 2000, the EPA proposed more stringent federal controls of coal ash but backed away in the face of fierce opposition from utilities, the coal industry and Clinton administration officials. At the time, the Edison Electric Institute, a trade association of power utilities, estimated the industry would have to spend up to $5 billion in additional cleanup costs if the substance were declared hazardous.

Icebergs of ash

The breach occurred when an earthen dike, the only thing separating millions of cubic yards of ash from the river, gave way, regurgitating a glossy sea of muck, 4 to 6 feet thick, dotted with icebergs of ash across the landscape. Where the Clinch River joined the Tennessee, a clear demarcation was visible between the soiled waters of the former and the clear brown broth of the latter.

By Wednesday afternoon, dump trucks were depositing rock into the river in a race to blockade it before an impending rainstorm washed more ash downstream.

The spill, which released about 300 million gallons of sludge and water, is far larger than two other similar disasters, said Jeffrey Stant, director of the Coal Combustion Waste Initiative for the Environmental Integrity Project, an environmental legal group, who has written on the subject for the EPA.

One spill in 1967 on the Clinch River in Virginia released about 130 million gallons; the other in 2005 in Northampton County, Pa., released about 100 million gallons into the Delaware River.

The contents of coal ash can vary widely depending on the source, but one study found that the mean concentrations of lead, chromium, nickel and arsenic are three to five times higher in the Appalachian coal that is mined near Kingston than in Rocky Mountain or Northern Plains coal.

Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said it was "mind-boggling" that officials had not warned residents of the dangers.

"The fact that they have not warned people I think is disastrous and potentially harmful to the residents," he said. He and other environmentalists warned that another danger would arise when the dried muck became airborne and breathable.

Despite numerous reports from recreational fishermen and television news video of a large fish kill downstream of the spill, Francis said the TVA's environmental team had not encountered dead fish. On Swan Pond Road, home to the residences nearest the plant, a group of environmental advocates went door to door telling residents that boiling their water, as officials had suggested, would not remove heavy metals.

"Clean coal" questioned

Environmentalists pointed to the accident as proof of their long-held assertion that there is no such thing as "clean coal," noting two factors that may have contributed to the scale of the disaster.

First, as coal plants have improved at controlling air pollution, toxins that would have been spewed into the air have been shifted to solid byproducts such as fly ash.

Second, the Kingston plant, surrounded by residential tracts of land, had little room to grow and piled its ash higher and higher, although officials said the pond that breached had not exceeded capacity.

Environmental groups long have pressed for coal ash to be buried in lined landfills to prevent the leaching of metals into the soil and groundwater.

An aboveground embankment such as the one at Kingston was not appropriate storage for fly ash, said Tom FitzGerald, director of nonprofit Kentucky Resources Council and an expert in coal waste. "I find it difficult to comprehend that the state of Tennessee would have approved that as a permanent disposal site," he said.

The TVA will find an alternative place to dispose of the fly ash, Francis said.

He said at least 30 pieces of heavy machinery were being used to begin the cleanup of the estimated 1.7 million cubic yards of ash that spilled from the 80-acre pond, and that work would continue day and night, even Christmas. The plant, which generates enough electricity to support 670,000 homes, is functioning but may run out of coal before the railroad tracks are cleared.

About 15 houses were affected by the flood, Francis said, and three likely would be declared uninhabitable. "We're going to make it right," he said.

An EPA spokeswoman, Laura Niles, said the agency was overseeing the cleanup and would decide whether to declare Kingston a Superfund site when the extent of the contamination was known.