Cleanup of the worst spill of its kind in the history of the U.S. is continuing in east Tennessee, where an earthen retention wall at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston coal plant failed on Dec. 22. The failure sent 5.4 million cu yd of toxic sludge composed of fly ash and water flowing over 300 acres.
The sludge, a byproduct of coal combustion, was stored at a 40-acre waste pond, one of three at TVA’s Kingston plant, located about 40 miles west of Knoxville in Roane County, Tenn., near the Clinch, Emory and Tennessee rivers. No one was seriously injured, but the initial spill, described as “a tidal wave” by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, destroyed three homes and ruptured a major gas line.