TVA Expects Cleanup of Emory River to be done by May

Date: February 11, 2010

Source: News Room

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) told officials this week that the cleanup of ash spilled into the Emory River in East Tennessee will "probably" be finished by mid-May. CEO Tom Kilgore told the utility's board members at a meeting last week that he is pleased with the progress of the river cleanup. In December 2008, about 5.4 million cubic yards (1 billion gallons) of coal ash laced with arsenic and potentially toxic substances spilled out of a holding pond at the Kingston, Tenn. TVA plant. Steve McCracken, TVA's general manager of the cleanup, told the Joint Conservation and Environment Committee that about 2.5 million cubic yards of coal ash have been removed from the river, nearly 70 percent of the ash spilled into the water. So far, he said 149 trains have transported roughly 1.4 million tons of ash away from the site to a solid waste landfill in Alabama. He said cleanup of the river is on schedule to be complete by May.

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