Public utility dike bursts, floods 8 to 10 homes

The collapse occurs at a power plant run by the Tenn. Valley Authority

HARRIMAN, Tenn. – A retention pond wall collapsed early Monday morning at a power plant run by the nation’s largest public utility, releasing a frigid mix of water and ash that flooded as many as 10 homes and put hundreds of acres of rural land under water.

The 40-acre pond was used by the Tennessee Valley Authority to hold a slurry of ash generated by the coal-burning Kingston Steam Plant in Harriman, about 50 miles west of Knoxville, said TVA spokesman Gil Francis. An earthen wall gave way just before 1 a.m., flooding the road and railroad tracks leading to the plant, which is located in a mostly rural area.


Authorities said no one was seriously injured or needed to be taken to the hospital.

Emergency workers helped people out of two partially collapsed homes and used four-wheel drive vehicles to check other homes where people couldn’t drive out, said Roane County Rescue Squad spokesman Brian Grief.

AP