Hearing looks at causes of Tennessee disaster; Kingston tab could top $100 million

The federal government, and particularly the Environmental Protection Agency, must adopt standards to prevent future toxic ash spills like the recent billion-gallon disaster in Tennessee, a key Senate Democrat said Thursday. "We need to have standards in place to make certain that coal ash is managed, and disposed of properly," Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said at the start of a hearing into the Tennessee spill last month. Some 1,300 containment ponds similar to the one in Tennessee exist across the country, but none are regulated by the federal EPA. When a dike broke Dec. 22 at the Kingston Fossil Plant, some 1.1 billion gallons of sludge was released from a 40-acre settlement pond, blanketing nearly 300 acres in a rural neighborhood up to 9 feet deep in grayish muck and spilling into the Emory River threatening drinking water.

In the Tennessee case, a dike containing coal ash byproducts from a coal-fired power plant collapsed on Dec. 22, releasing some 1.1 billion gallons of sludge into the Emory River. Officials from the Tennessee Valley Authority, which operates the plant in Kingston, promised senators and local residents affected by the spill that they will clean up the sludge as quickly as they can and work to compensate those who have lost property. The tab for the spill could reach hundreds of millions of dollars, and TVA ratepayers will probably be stuck with the bill. The total cost of cleaning up isn't yet clear, but the bill will be staggering. With few other places for the Tennessee Valley Authority to turn to cover the costs, the utility's 9 million customers in Tennessee and six surrounding states will bear the brunt in higher electricity rate hikes in the future.

Learn more about the Kingston coal fly ash spill and the legal rights of victims of the spill.