Settling Ash Could Complicate TVA Cleanup of Rivers

The Tennessee Valley Authority’s cleanup of the Emory and Clinch rivers could become complicated by pollutants that were in the riverbed from before the ash spill at its Kingston Fossil Plant.

That’s where an earthen dam broke last December, spilling millions of cubic yards of ash sludge into the rivers.

TVA has been running dredgers to pull ash out of the Emory for months, 24 hours a day, six days a week, with maintenance on the seventh. But the ash has become so settled in parts of the riverbed that workers have to break it up with backhoes to get it out.

Dennis Yankee is the environmental manager for TVA recovery at Kingston. He says in some places, doing that could risk stirring up older pollutants like mercury he says settled there before the ash spill.

“As we get down to the lowest levels, get back to almost the native sediments, we’ll make a decision based on the – There are issues in this river from upstream industry. So the decision of how close you get to those native sediments will be determined as we get better sampling data that tells us what’s in that sediment. It may be better off left alone.”

Yankee says that could mean leaving some of the ash in the riverbed. But TVA officials cautioned such legacy pollutants aren’t an issue where they’re dredging currently. And a decision on how to handle the area further downstream won’t be made until next spring.

AUDIO:

An initial point from Yankee about the riverbed pollutants, followed by a four-minute interview on the subject.

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A subsequent interview with TVA officials in charge of the cleanup, Steve McCracken and Anda Ray.

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ALSO:

Recent photos from the cleanup here.

Photos by Robin Conover from shortly after the spill here.