The Tennessee Valley Authority has overemphasized anomalies found in its Kingston coal ash pile that collapsed in December to limit its own legal liability. That’s according to a new report from TVA’s Office of Inspector General.
Consultants hired by TVA to find the root cause pinpoint a rarely-found slime layer at the bottom of the ash pile as the ultimate trigger, releasing 5.4-million tons of toxic sludge. But the TVA inspector general says the utility’s lawyers limited the scope of the consultant’s report to protect its managers.
An outside engineering firm hired by the inspector general says the height and shape of the 40-year-old ash pile played just as much a role if not more. William Almes of Marshall Miller and Associates testified before a House committee Tuesday and says over-stacking ash is a management problem, and one that’s much more widespread.
“Other similarly constructed ash impoundments could be at risk of failure and should be properly investigated.”
Those include five other wet-storage ash piles managed by TVA and the 44 recently listed by the EPA as posing a hazard to communities around the country.
The Inspector General also identifies engineering reports more than 20 years old that point to problems with the Kingston ash pile. TVA’s CEO Tom Kilgore also testified Tuesday and says the utility’s customers will pay the price for deferred maintenance.
“Unfortunately the steps we didn’t take in the past will fall on our rate payers and we will have to pay for that through our electric bills.”
Kilgore also said TVA is working to dry out each of its six wet-storage facilities and convert them to dry storage.
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