Grand jury calls for criminal probe into Kingston coal ash spill
A Roane County grand jury on Tuesday called for a criminal investigation into the treatment of laborers who say they were forced to labor in the Tennessee Valley Authority's toxic waste without adequate protection.
In a surprise move, 9th Judicial District Attorney General Russell Johnson asked the Roane County grand jury at a sealed hearing this week to hear witnesses and review evidence into the treatment of hundreds of contract laborers who cleaned up the 2008 coal ash spill at TVA'S Kingston Fossil Plant.
Since the December 2008 spill, 47 disaster relief workers have died and more than 400 are sick, according to a tally from court records kept by Knox News, and those workers and their families say coal ash caused their illnesses. Knox News has been investigating their treatment — and TVA'S claims about coal ash waste — since 2017.
Johnson declined comment late Tuesday evening on the grand jury report. He has been investigating the possibility of a criminal probe since Knox News first revealed the workers' allegations. It's not clear what led him to take the case to the grand jury Tuesday.
TVA spokesman Scott Brooks said the utility "was not aware of the proceedings and has not seen the report."
TVA cleanup contractor Jacobs Engineering issued a statement Wednesday via attorney Theodore J. Boutrous Jr.
"Jacobs stands by its work assisting TVA with the difficult job of managing the cleanup of the Kingston coal ash spill," he said. "Jacobs did not cause the spill or cause any workers to be injured, and the allegations are baseless."
Grand jury: TBI probe needed
The grand jury members wrote in a report issued late Tuesday witness testimony made clear the need for a criminal probe into allegations TVA'S chief clean-up contractor, Jacobs Engineering, denied laborers adequate protective gear, threatened to fire workers who insisted on respiratory protection, misled them about the dangers of coal ash and tampered with exposure threat level testing.
“The Roane County grand jury heard over five hours of testimony from three witnesses relative to the TVA coal-fired steam plant coal ash spill clean up in Kingston,” the grand jury report stated.
“The grand jury concurred with the district attorney general's recommendation for him to predicate a (Tennessee Bureau of Investigation) investigation into certain issues pertaining to the clean up worker safety (including) alteration of air monitor results, other environmental tests and readings regarding the coal ash, failure to inform, protect and provide safety measures for clean up workers,” the report stated.
The grand jury also called on Johnson “to further pursue inquiry with (the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation), TVA and any possible state claims under the Clean Water Act.”
TVA claimed coal ash waste safe as dirt
The 2008 Kingston spill destroyed homes, roadways and infrastructure, and remains the largest manmade environmental disaster in U.S. history, larger than the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska and 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
TVA'S Office of the Inspector General would later conclude TVA was at fault for the dike failure, ignored failure warning signs and treated coal ash as a substance as safe as household garbage in its handling of the material and worker safety measures.
Coal ash is a broad term for the waste stream generated by coal-fired plant operators like TVA as they produce electricity. It contains at least 26 cancercausing toxins, heavy metals and radioactive isotopes, according to TVA'S own testing and Duke Energy's Material Safety Data Sheet.
At the time of the spill, TVA insisted coal ash was no more dangerous than dirt and no more radioactive than lowsodium table salt.
An ongoing investigation by Knox News revealed TVA had known for decades its coal ash contained dangerous ingredients including radioactive material, and that chronic exposure could cause cancer, but kept quiet about the risk.
Cleanup workers were immersed in the Kingston ash without masks or respirators and Tyvek body suits for as much as 60 hours a week for months at a time for some and years for others, the newspaper's probe shows. Some workers were employed at the site for as many as seven years.
Workers have previously testified Jacobs Engineering's safety managers told them that they could safely eat a pound of coal ash daily, a claim Knox News has revealed is unsupported by science and was coined by the American Coal Ash Association to defend lawsuits.
Jacobs officials have said the statement wasn't made to be taken literally, according to court testimony.
Workers have told Knox News that Jacobs' managers denied them protective gear, destroyed boxes full of protective dust masks and threatened to fire them if they insisted on protection.
TVA cleanup supervisor Gary Mcdonald has admitted in sworn testimony workers may have been exposed to radioactive material during the clean-up. Mcdonald also admitted to denying respiratory protection to a worker despite a doctor's order for the gear.
Jacobs and TVA maintain protective gear, including dust masks, respirators and protective coveralls, wasn't necessary based on exposure threat level testing. The workers allege Jacobs tampered with exposure threat level testing.
TVA was required under an administrative order to maintain all records — including videos — related to the cleanup through December 2018. Those videos, which would have shown worker conditions at the cleanup site, are now missing. TVA has refused to explain.
Knox News' ongoing probe has shown TVA agreed to pay Jacobs Engineering's legal bills if anyone alleged they were sickened by coal ash during the cleanup. Jacobs has invoked that agreement in the workers' case.
TVA paid Jacobs more than $64 million for managing the cleanup operation.
TVA'S board of directors earlier this year expressed sympathy for the workers' plight but turned down a request to help provide funding for their medical care. Many of the sickened workers do not have insurance or access to affordable medical care.
Coal ash fallout continues
A handful of cleanup workers filed a federal lawsuit against Jacobs in 2013. A jury ruled in November 2018 Jacobs breached its cleanup contract with TVA and its duty to protect the cleanup workers.
The verdict brought no damages, though, and instead merely paves the way for more trials at which workers must prove coal ash exposure is the cause of their illnesses.
U.S. District Judge Tom Varlan ordered Jacobs to try to negotiate a settlement, but more than a year later there has been no indication in court records that any agreement has been reached.
The cleanup workers could not file suit against TVA because courts had long awarded the utility governmental immunity. The U.S. Supreme Court last year stripped TVA of automatic immunity in future lawsuits, though.
Since that ruling, lawsuits have been filed against TVA over coal ash contamination claims in Roane and Anderson counties. Leaders in Anderson County are also fighting a bid by TVA to build a new coal ash dump there at its Bull Run coal-fired plant in the Claxton community.
TVA last year settled a lawsuit over coal ash contamination at its coal-fired plant in Gallatin, agreeing to dig up the toxic waste, move it away from public water sources and clean up contamination left behind.
The utility is also digging up coal ash from its shuttered plant in Memphis after massive arsenic contamination was discovered there.