Coal ash spill cleanup could cost $825 million

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – It could cost as much as $825 million to clean up a river and a rural neighborhood after a massive spill of coal ash sludge from a Tennessee Valley Authority power plant, the utility’s chief executive said Thursday.

President and CEO Tom Kilgore told the TVA board of directors that the nation’s largest public utility had already spent $31 million on the work from December through the end of January.

It was the first board meeting since 1.1 billion gallons of coal ash sludge broke out of a containment pond on Dec. 22, flooding homes and pouring into a river inlet near the Kingston Fossil Plant, about 40 miles west of Knoxville. No one was hurt, but 300 acres were covered with up to 9 feet of grayish muck.

The disaster brought national attention to coal ash containment ponds, which are located at more than 150 plants in 32 states, and the need for greater federal regulation.

Kilgore revealed for the first time the estimated cost of cleaning up the spill was between $525 million and $825 million, depending upon “a number of things we don’t know yet.” Kilgore said those unknowns included the number of times the coal waste will have to be moved and how fast dredging the Emory River can be done.

MSNBC