hide caption. Because it will be challenging to connect each workers individual cocktail of diseases to their specific coal ash exposure, he said its a shame that at least 50 workers have already died. The plaintiffs lawyer, Jim Scott, said hes disappointed TVA reneged on that promise. Medical bills cost about $5,000 out-of-pocket annually. hide caption. Bledsoe and his wife, Johnnie, were out celebrating the end of her two-year battle with breast cancer and trying to relax after his hospital visit that afternoon, when doctors found a spot on his lung. EPA's 2015 coal ash regulations were spurred by major disasters. In the early morning hours of December 22, 2008, the earthen wall of a containment pond at Tennessee's Kingston Fossil Plant gave way. In other states, it's been a mixed bag, with utilities being allowed to merely drain and cover their ash ponds, a practice known as "cap-in-place. Esther Calhoun of Uniontown, Alabama, and president of Black Belt Citizens for Health & Justice, knows coal ash pollution all too well. By Newsweek Staff On 7/17/09 at 8:00 PM EDT. Large pipes transport coal ash waste at the Dan River Steam Station in Eden, N.C., with the decommissioned Dan River coal-fired power plant in the background Jan. 14, 2016. In early 2017, a private investigator told Jamie Satterfield, a reporter at the Knoxville News Sentinel, that she needed to look into the sick workers. They say OUC took advantage of a widely used loophole written into EPA's Coal Combustion Residuals Rule, passed in 2015, near the end of the Obama administration after decades of battles between environmentalists, industry and the EPA. hide caption. His daughter-in-law lived with him during the cleanup while pregnant with his grandson. More than 200 workers, spouses and families of the deceased are now part of an ongoing series of lawsuits seeking damages against Jacobs Engineering, the contractor TVA paid $64m to oversee the cleanup. Adams says labeling coal ash "hazardous" would have created a "stigma" and scared recyclers away. This story is a collaboration between Inside Climate News and WMFE Orlando, a member of ICN's National Reporting Network-Southeast. "It definitely is, and we still have responsibility with coal. SELC and its partners have won other victories for ash pond cleanups in Virginia and Tennessee. By Trip Gabriel Feb. 28, 2014 RALEIGH, N.C. Last June, state employees in charge of stopping water pollution were given updated marching orders on behalf of North Carolina's new Republican. Prior to the 2015 rule governing coal ash disposal, every utility stored it differently and some of those methods resulted in spills, including the TVA's coal ash spill at the Kingston Fossil . The pandemic and failed mediation has compounded their isolation: the most recent mediation offer from Jacobs $10,000 each for workers and their families to drop the lawsuit came as Covid-19 spread throughout the US. According to the American Coal Ash Association's Coal Combustion Product Production & Use Survey Report, nearly 130 million tons of coal ash was generated in 2014. The focus is the impact of coal ash, a toxic waste product of burning coal that often contains harmful metals such as lead, mercury, chromium and cadmium. They turned it down, so Jacobs offered 197 additional workers and their families, plaintiffs in subsequent legal actions, $10,000 each to drop their own lawsuits (according to court records, roughly 30 plaintiffs have settled). When they asked to wear dust masks, or when they were prescribed dust masks from their doctors, they said company culture implied if they wore them, theyd be fired. In a 2019 report, the Environmental Integrity Project and other advocacy groups analyzed monitoring data utilities had posted on their websites. It is composed of materials remaining after coal is burned, including fine sand (called silica), unburned carbon, various metals, and compounds that have potential to be Contaminants of Potential Concern (COPCs). Doug Bledsoe at his home in Powell. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. The case has dragged on for seven years. Wilkinson said his doctors arent sure if his body could handle another transplant. Operating since 1955, Kingston still produces roughly 1,400 tons of ash each day. Courtesy Craig Wilkinson The TVA spill marked a turning point in the debate over the dangers of coal ash, an often-toxic byproduct of coal-fired electricity. . The focus is the impact of coal ash, a toxic waste product of burning coal that often contains harmful metals such as lead, mercury, chromium and cadmium. Piper Vargas lives six miles from Orlando's coal ash landfill, with her husband Oscar and sons Max, 8, right, and Diego, 5, left. TVA was the lead Federal agency to implement the cleanup actions required by the AOC. On February 2, 2014 a drainage pipe burst at a coal ash containment pond owned by Duke Energy in Eden, North Carolina, sending 39,000 tons of coal ash into the Dan River. Coal ash is a gray, powdery byproduct of burning coal to produce energy. EPA has to reform the way it runs its Office of Civil Rights so that it actually works to protect communities like ours, Calhoun says. Illinois has the most power plants with polluted ash storage sites with 16, followed by Texas, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina and Missouri, all with more than 10. "I've seen firsthand how coal ash contamination can hurt people and communities," said EPA Administrator Michael Regan, who oversaw the regulation of coal ash as North Carolina's top environmental regulator before coming to the EPA last year. The cooling towers at the Stanton Energy Center, a coal-fired power plant, are seen behind a home in Orlando. I was right proud of TVA until I went to work for them, Bledsoe said. She worries that toxic elements in the coal ash might seep into the area's vital groundwater. But TVA denied their request, and Brooks, the TVA spokesperson, told Southerly and the Guardian that TVA is not a party to that litigation and will continue to respect the judicial process. In 2018, a jury found Jacobs now represented by three of the highest-paid law firms in the nation failed to protect its workers, which could have contributed to their medical conditions. Depending on exposure, such contaminants can cause cancer and harm most human organs, and kill or sicken wildlife. One was near Knoxville, Tenn., on Dec. 22, 2008, when a levee along a mountain of sodden . Before her investigation, Wilkinson said, I was contemplating going out to the back shed and ending it. He told Satterfield if she agreed to tell their story, hed hang on. But the designation was complex: though the substances that constituted coal ash were hazardous substances under Superfund law, coal ash itself was not regulated as a hazardous waste. EPA's 2015 coal ash regulations were spurred by major disasters. Yet Vargas still has her fears and she hasn't been alone. Chief U.S. District Judge Tom Varlan has ruled the workers attorneys must first jump that hurdle proving causation before the case for damages can be mounted. Duke is currently proposing to leave coal ash in unlined pits at six locations across the state, sites where groundwater contamination is currently happening. He said his family has suffered from exposure to the ash he brought home, too. The agency said it was also putting several power plants on notice regarding their obligations to comply with its 2015 regulations. Duke is currently proposing to leave coal ash in unlined pits at six locations across the state, sites where groundwater contamination is currently happening. It is composed of materials remaining after coal is burned, including fine sand (called silica), unburned carbon, various metals, and compounds that have potential to be Contaminants of Potential Concern (COPCs). All rights reserved. Like many electric utilities, the Orlando Utilities Commission (OUC), which operates the energy center, is moving away from burning coal. "This disaster proves that regulations. "The only way this becomes a public controversy is either a local community group gets concerned and brings it to the attention of some environmental legal advocacy group, or the legal advocacy and environmental group learns about the problem and checks around and sees a local community that has a vague notion but isn't quite sure what's going on," he says. Russ says utilities find wiggle room in their interpretations of regulations that require engineering assessments, environmental monitoring, closure plans, and potentially corrective action if groundwater pollution limits are exceeded. It was delayed after a fire the cause of which was not determined at the law offices of Stewart and Dupree and an ongoing court fight with Jacobs attorneys over the use of experts to try to link the workers deaths and illnesses to their coal ash exposure. Paul Henessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images "I wanted them to do better, right?," she says. As a result, a better understanding of the scale of coal ash contamination across the country has emerged. Gerry Broome/AP Three years later, Satterfields reporting validated how many workers felt. At first, some called their shortness of breath, nose bleeds, coughing fits, and allergy-like symptoms the Kingston crud and attributed it to exhaustion. More than 50 coal ash spill cleanup workers and workers' survivors are suiing Jacobs Engineering for unsafe working conditions that they allege lead to sickness and death at the cleanup site. In congressional testimony at the time, Bevill said his amendment sought to curb EPA rules on fossil fuel wastes in order to protect the coal and electric utility industries from "unnecessary burdens" and high costs, and to "encourage coal as a primary source of domestic energy." Another workers wife tasted it in his mustache when she kissed him. All of the diseases that were looked at by us were plausibly related to coal ash exposure, Terry told me. Coal ash includes a number of by-products produced from burning coal, including: Fly ash, a very fine, powdery material composed mostly of silica made from the burning of finely ground coal in a boiler. Depending on exposure, such. Then in May, the EPA issued a Cercla order regulating Kingston as a hazardous waste site within the EPAs Superfund program. In particular, Terry noticed the relation between coal ash and the frequency of respiratory, cardiovascular and skin conditions. Johnnie remembers looking across the table at her husband, whose tan face was slack, his mouth drooling. But OUC has found ways to limit their cleanup obligations that are commonplace in industry, says Abel Russ, a senior attorney with Environmental Integrity Project, and the lead author of the 2019 national report on coal ash contamination. The . For almost six years, he, along with roughly 900 others, helped clean up the nations largest coal ash spill an hour west of his doorstep. EPA officials concluded that regulating coal ash as a solid waste a less rigorous category would be enough to prevent ash pile collapses, blowing ash dust and groundwater contamination. Regulations for the safe disposal of coal ash, Water regulations on power plant discharges. To address the risks from improper disposal and discharge of coal ash, EPA has established national rules for coal ash disposal and is strengthening existing controls on water discharges. The Commission intends to shine a light on the civil rights implications of toxic coal ash, as well as other environmental conditions, on communities most in need of protection," said Commission Chairman Martin R. Castro in a statement. Undergoing Fertility Treatment? I am only 51 years old and I have neuropathy. Coal ash is a gray, powdery byproduct of burning coal to produce energy. They received health insurance for their families while they worked and workers say they made around $25 an hour plus overtime and they worked overtime often, logging 12 to 18-hour shifts, seven days a week, for years. All that coal burning waste had to go somewhere. The toxic sludge is sent to modern landfills with protective liners. Coal ash is a broad term for coal waste, and there are multiple subcategories. Those planning to testify next Friday in Washington, D.C., at the hearing say minorities and poor people should no longer bear the burden of these dangerous pollutants. From my perspective, theres really no civil rights enforcement protecting our community from bearing the burden of environmental pollution.. More: Kingston coal ash spill cleanup probe spurs more complaints of disease, death. CNN On Sunday, CNN published "Gambling 'America's Amazon,'" an investigation on a toxic coal ash pond in southern Alabama that experts say threatens one of the nation's most pristine. Florida had nine power plants with polluted ash storage sites, including at the Stanton Energy Center, the report found. The lawsuits and records obtained by USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee show TVA faced with lawsuits from residents over the spill persuaded the Environmental Protection Agency to remove warnings from signage that coal ash was hazardous., More: Undercover video shows air quality monitors manipulated, More: 'Just working class people' didn't know dangers they faced at ash spill. Gerry Broome/AP To see the complete collection of documents, visit the Superfund Publications website . In the years since, hundreds of cleanup workers fell ill, and many have died. Over the last century, as the U.S increasingly relied on coal to power its economy, hundreds of power plants produced billions of tons of ash and other combustion wastes. Reusing coal ash can create many environmental, economic, and product benefits including: For more information, visit the coal ash reuse Web page. The industry has opposed what it calls a "one size fits all" approach and petitioned the EPA for changes the Trump administration made, such as extending compliance deadlines and allowing utilities to request exemptions. The hearings panel will include representatives both from the EPA and coal ash manufacturers. More than 30 of the workers involved in cleaning up the spill have died while hundreds more are sick. Attorneys John Dupree, Keith Stewart and Jim Scott already had filed lawsuits in U.S. District Court against that contractor Jacobs Engineering Inc. on behalf of 53 dead or dying workers. Two of those scientists have now joined the newest lawsuit filed in Roane County. After the series published, TVA added signage to silos at the plant that warned coal ash was toxic and prolonged exposure could lead to cancers and illnesses. Incident Coal ash deposits on the Dan River shoreline, downstream from the spill. Coal ash, also referred to as coal combustion residuals or CCRs, is produced primarily from the burning of coal in coal-fired power plants. Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty EPA's 2015 coal ash regulations were spurred by major disasters. In announcing its determinations, the agency said it was affirming its view that ash disposal pits or landfills cannot be closed with ash in contact with groundwater. Workers have begged TVA for financial help paying medical costs via a health insurance program. He also has low testosterone, failing eyesight and skin cancer. Government lawyers sought to have Duke Energy held liable for environmental damage from the leak that left the Dan River coated in hazardous coal ash, harming fish, birds and amphibians. The most recent disaster was in 2014 at Duke Energys Dan River Steam Station in North Carolina where 39,000 tons of coal ash and 27 million gallons of wastewater gushed into the Dan River. The cooling towers at the Stanton Energy Center, a coal-fired power plant, are seen behind a home in Orlando. Witnesses during the trial testified Jacobs tampered with dust monitors, manipulated dust sampling results, and failed to warn workers about the dangers. He heard what sounded like a . The fly ash disposal site is part of TDEC's investigation of the coal ash at all of TVA's plants, which could require TVA to remove the coal ash at Bull Run, but there has not been a decision yet. Coal ash lodges in the lungs forever; the toxins in it can damage the body years after exposure. The Dan River spill focused public and political attention on Duke's 130 million tons of coal ash stored at 32 North Carolina sites, which environmentalists say have been polluting rivers . The maneuver exempted the landfill from the new requirements for environmental monitoring and, if contamination were found, a requirement to take corrective actions. His stage four cancer meant he was on chemotherapy treatments for the remainder of his life, though he outlived his doctors expectations by over nine months. The industry found commercial uses for some power plant waste products, including putting the ash into cement or concrete, or converting sludge from smokestack scrubbers into a form of gypsum used to make drywall. Bledsoe said everyone was pretty sure we werent going to fare real well after the job ended. That testing revealed levels of arsenic 36 times higher than the level in surrounding unaffected dirt, a TDEC report showed. The Tennessee Valley Authority was responsible for a massive coal ash spill at the plant in 2008 that covered a community and fouled rivers. Explore our digital archive back to 1845, including articles by more than 150 Nobel Prize winners. As fly ash dries, it is typically moved to new containment areas to continue drying, and it was one of these . However, 10 years later, it has become clear that this was still a very deadly incident. Chuck Burton/AP But the cleanup lasted two more years, and even after the suit was filed, site-wide policies on health and safety developed by Jacobs and approved by TVA continued to make it extremely difficult for respiratory equipment to be used. That dumping stopped on Aug. 28, 2015, just 52 days before the Obama-era national regulations went into effect. Homes were destroyed by coal ash when a retention pond wall collapsed at the TVA Kingston Fossil Plant in Harriman, Tenn. on Dec 22, 2008. The Edison Electric Institute, a trade group that represents investor-owned utilities, maintains that electric companies are managing coal ash "in ways that put safety first, protect the environment, minimize impacts to the community, and manage costs for customers.". But economic benefits come with social, health and environmental costs, and stories like these spurred the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights to investigate. 1 in North Carolina and showed the nation that the massive spill in Kingston, Tenn., five years earlier, was not a fluke. JavaScript appears to be disabled on this computer. She also discovered Tennessees environmental regulators altered sampling results, downplaying higher levels of uranium and radium. Government lawyers sought to have Duke Energy held liable for environmental damage from the leak that left the Dan River coated in hazardous coal ash, harming fish, birds and amphibians. They werent five miles away living in a house. Its not clear whether the new state court lawsuit will affect the federal case. Vargas fears the dust particles from the landfill carried by the wind to her tidy blue lakeside home six miles away, and what inhaling them might do to her family, especially her two young sons. Although workers took hazardous waste training, those I spoke to and others who testified or supplied affidavits for the 2018 trial, said they were not informed of the constituents in coal ash, or that they could be dangerous to human health. Its like a bad dream really, said Wilkinson. Then the plaintiffs dropped the suit late last year for unspecified reasons. Coal ash and ash pond water flowed into the failed section of the line, and then to the Dan River. Crews are currently removing accessible coal ash from the Dan River and sampling drinking water, surface water and river sediments. But an initial draft of the site safety plan made no mention of radioactive materials, and did not list heavy metals as constituents of fly ash aside from arsenic. The workers still struggle with stress, anxiety and depression. In a Facebook group for the workers, Bledsoes sister-in-law pinned up an urgent prayer request for Bledsoe, who began end-of-life care days later. Dr Paul Terry, an epidemiologist at the University of Tennessee, analyzed worker health concerns for phase I of the lawsuit. Wilkinson has had several panic attacks and struggled with suicidal thoughts. "We can't afford an environmental disaster in Virginia like the one North Carolina suffered from the Duke Energy coal ash spill on . The spill at the TVA Kingston Fossil Fuel Power Plant in the Swan Pond community was the nations worst and was deemed by TVAs Office of the Inspector General as TVAs fault, in part for treating coal ash which contains dozens of toxic chemicals and metals like it was garbage in a kitchen. We recap the. OUC isn't unique, according to environmental watchdogs. Others have died. Bledsoe, who helped clean up the nations largest coal ash spill, developed stage 4 cancer. At the Stanton Energy Center, for example, Russ observed that wells used to detect whether the new landfill area is polluting groundwater are more than a half-mile away, and utility consultants have said it would take groundwater "several hundred years" to reach them. TVAs own testing showed the utility knew the coal ash waste material leftover from burning coal for electricity contained toxic heavy metals such as cadmium, lead, mercury and selenium, and radioactive materials, decades before the spill; an EPA pollution report from early 2009 shows TVA tested for radioactivity in ash and soil samples two weeks after the spill occurred and EPA found spikes in radiation above background levels. Jamie Satterfield. She called plaintiffs in the lawsuit, listening as they rattled off their symptoms. Homes were destroyed by coal ash when a retention pond wall collapsed at the TVA Kingston Fossil Plant in Harriman, Tenn. on Dec 22, 2008. ", Heavy equipment is used at an ash storage site at Gallatin Fossil Plant in Gallatin, Tenn. Jan. 25, 2017. Last year, it announced it would stop burning coal by 2027 and use fossil gas as a bridge to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, while ramping up solar power and energy storage. Lawsuit reveals coal ash workers treated as 'expendables'. The spill led to increased federal regulation in 2015 although the Trump administration has since rolled back the new rules but the lack of federal and state oversight made arranging cleanup simple on TVAs part: they hired Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc, a Texas-based contractor with a history of worker safety lawsuits. The attorneys have now filed a new lawsuit in Roane County Circuit Court on behalf of an additional 180 dead or dying laborers. Ive waited eight years, I can wait a little longer.. In December 2008, an earthen dam collapsed at a pond brimming with ash generated by the utility's Kingston Fossil Fuel Plant, 36 miles southwest of Knoxville. In a report this month, his group said coal-ash recycling rates, after rising markedly from 2000 . Austyn Gaffney is a freelance reporter in Kentucky covering agriculture, energy and climate change. Doug and Johnnie Bledsoe at their home in Powell. A New Lawsuit Only last year, Roane County, Tennessee, and two neighboring cities filed a lawsuit against the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and Jacobs Engineering, its main contractor. Utilities dumped it into watery, unlined pits called coal-ash ponds, and piled it office-tower high in landfills.