Leaders want to test park for coal ash
Roane County leaders are pressing the Tennessee Valley Authority for permission to test for coal ash contamination in the air and ground at a youth sports complex and public park that borders the site of the nation’s largest spill of the toxic substance.
The question now is whether the TVA, which owns the land and caused a spill of 7.3 million tons of coal ash that smothered 300 acres in Roane County a decade ago, will allow it.
TVA paid to construct the complex of youth athletic fields and public park areas on land bordering the spill site and leased them to Roane County as part of the utility’s promise to make up for the December 2008 spill damage and seven-year cleanup. TVA also shelled out $45 million in cash to governments in Roane County.
TVA insists the leased fields and public parks were not contaminated by coal ash from the spill, Roane County Executive Ron Woody said.
ROANE COUNTY OFFICIALS QUESTION TVA
A USA Today Network-Tennessee ongoing investigation revealed late last year TVA representatives misled Roane County residents about the dangers of coal ash exposure in public meetings after the spill.
The investigation also revealed workers who helped clean up the spill and construct the youth athletic fields feared there was coal ash mixed in with the soil. The workers said they tried but failed to remove all the coal ash from the area, and TVA pushed forward with plans to cap it with dirt and clay lining. TVA denies that.
As a result of the reporting, Woody and Roane County Commission Chairman Randy Ellis said in December county officials no longer trusted TVA and wanted to test the sports fields for contamination.
The commission voted in December to hire attorney Jim Scott to pursue legal action against TVA and Jacobs Engineering, the global contractor TVA put in charge of cleaning up the Kingston Fossil Plant spill that is now accused of lying to cleanup workers about the dangers of coal ash, refusing them protective gear and tampering with exposure level testing.
More than 40 workers are now dead and more than 400 sick from ailments that could be linked to the constituents of coal ash, the USA Today Network-Tennessee investigation has shown.
The Roane County Environmental Review Board met Jan. 3 with representatives of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation and Tennessee Department of Health to seek a plan to test the air and soil at the county’s athletic fields and public park areas, including the Swan Pond Sports Complex and Lakeshore Park, records show.
The agencies submitted that plan to Roane County leaders on Monday.
“We’ve sent it to TVA,” Woody said. “It’s their property … so we’re waiting on TVA.”
TVA spokesman Scott Brooks said the agency will review the plan and then decide whether to allow it.
“We are reviewing and considering the proposal and will communicate directly with the county to understand the details,” Brooks said.
SOCCER FIELD BROUHAHA
TVA insists coal ash — which contains 26 heavy metals and toxins including arsenic, radium, chromium and mercury — is safe and has denied any past or current contamination of the land it leased to Roane County.
Woody said children are no longer allowed to play on the athletic fields at the Swan Pond Sports Complex and won’t be until the soil and air is tested by an independent environmental company and the results analyzed.
“There’s allegations of possible contamination there from either the spill or from the transfer of coal ash from one location to another,” Woody said. “Out of an abundance of caution, especially with what TVA has told us in the past, we want to be extra cautious with our children.”
Keenon Hethcoat, who heads up the AYSO Soccer program in Roane County, said he didn’t learn about the closure of the soccer fields at the Swan Pond Sports Complex until Feb. 8.
He sent an email to parents on that day urging them to “voice your concerns” about the field closures to Woody and the Roane County Commission.
“The commission and the Roane County executive knew of this several months ago and are now sharing this with us,” Hethcoat wrote. “Like with every government entity, they have adopted a ‘hurry up and wait’ attitude. Your help to encourage them to accelerate this process would be greatly appreciated.”
Hethcoat did not tell parents in the email that he works for TVA. In an interview with USA Today Network-Tennessee last week, Hethcoat insisted he was acting on his own and not on behalf of TVA in urging soccer parents to complain. He said he is now being forced to find playing fields for Roane County AYSO soccer teams and should have been given more notice.
“They could have said in December this may be happening to you in March,” Hethcoat said. “I would have liked more notice. My role is to make sure the kids have a safe place to practice and play games. Every other sports group in Roane County has already been allocated space to practice on.”
Woody said Hethcoat knew on Feb. 2 the soccer fields were closed to children because Hethcoat sought permission to stripe the fields that day. He noted Hethcoat is a Roane County resident, and news of the testing was published in the local newspaper at least twice in December. Hethcoat said he didn’t see those stories or any of USA Today Network-Tennessee’s coal ash investigative series.
Asked if he supports testing for coal ash contamination, Hethcoat said he isn’t opposed to it.
“I could have been given a better heads up,” he said. “That’s what I’m upset about.”
STATE: PUBLIC HEALTH AT ISSUE
The Tennessee departments of Health and of Environment and Conservation cited the need to protect children and the public from coal ash as cause for its agreement to develop the testing plan.
“It is the intent of both [Tennessee Department of Health] and [Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation] to protect the health of the citizens of Tennessee,” the plan’s introduction says. “This work plan is intended to provide a way to gain a complete picture and understand if there are remaining coal ash constituents in the surface soils and ambient air in the areas of concern.
“It is not known whether coal ash may have been tracked or blown onto areas of the Athletic and Festival Fields, Lakeshore Park, and the Walking Trail-Birdwatching Area,” the plan reads. “The potential exposure at the Athletic Fields and other areas is a community concern and this sampling plan has been developed to assess if exposure is occurring.”
Environment department spokesman Eric Ward said the agency will not be relying upon TVA’s sampling and testing in its efforts to test the Roane County parks and fields for coal ash contamination. His department and the Environmental Protection Agency relied on TVA and Jacobs Engineering for exposure level testing and analysis. The USA Today Network-Tennessee investigation has uncovered evidence of tampering and manipulation of that testing process. Jacobs and TVA deny it.
Ward said the state will collect independent groundwater samples from the area and will have them analyzed at a lab separate from the one used by TVA.
The Environment department also will review and provide comments on the soil sampling plan for the soccer field, which will be prepared by the Tennessee Department of Health, he said. “Once our review is complete, the plan will be implemented by a third party at the coordination of Roane County.”
TVA and the nation’s other power providers make millions each year selling coal ash — the by-product of burning coal to produce electricity — for reuse, primarily in industrial projects, but must store tons of the toxic sludge it can’t sell.
LITTLE COAL ASH REGULATION
Until the Kingston spill, there was little regulation of coal ash or its storage. The EPA sought in 2015 to regulate coal ash as hazardous waste, a move that would heighten worker safety standards and toughen requirements for how coal ash is stored.
TVA and its fellow utility companies — via the American Coal Ash Association and with backing from Tennessee U.S. Sens. Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker — successfully lobbied against the move.
There are hundreds of coal-ash impoundments across the nation, and the EPA has found dozens that it believes are leaking. In the wake of the 2008 spill, some utilities, including TVA, began converting to dry ash storage as a safer way to handle the material.
But groundwater test wells at TVA’s newly created dry ash storage landfills at its Kingston and Bull Run plants are showing signs of contamination from coal ash constituents. Additional testing has been ordered.
A jury in U.S. District Court in November ruled Jacobs Engineering breached its contract with TVA to safely clean up the spill and protect the disaster relief workers. Chief U.S. District Judge Tom Varlan has ordered Jacobs to the mediation table to try to settle the lawsuit.
Jacobs denies the workers’ allegations, and TVA is continuing to do business with the contractor to the tune of at least $200 million.