KINGSTON, Tenn. — The collapse of a fly ash mound at one of TVA’s biggest power plants underscores the need for better regulatory oversight of coal residues, U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said Monday.

The Chattanooga Republican said the spill of 1.1 billion gallons of fly ash and muck into the Emory River and surrounding properties “has destroyed many people’s way of life” and will require a costly cleanup for the Tennessee Valley Authority and its ratepayers.

“I think it is wake-up call for both the federal government and state entities that are involved in inspecting these particular facilities to make sure that we do everything we can to make sure the integrity is there,” Sen. Corker said. “I know that concerns about environmental issues will have an impact on this community for years to come.”

On Monday, Sen. Corker toured the ash-covered properties near the Kingston Steam Plant and met with a handful of homeowners displaced by the wave of ash that spewed out of a containment cell in the middle of the night three days before Christmas.

At a news conference following his visit, Sen. Corker urged TVA to conduct more public meetings with area residents to explain what the agency is doing to clean up the mess and how those hurt by the spill may be helped in their recovery.

“It seems to me that one of the biggest needs right now in this community is for TVA to have another public meeting where (TVA officials) lay out to citizens exactly the route for citizens who have been harmed to take to be made whole,” he said.

Sen. Corker also urged officials with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation to stay at the site to ensure TVA adequately cleans up the estimated 5.4 million cubic yards of ash that spilled out.

TDEC regulates TVA’s coal ash storage as a Class II landfill, but some environmentalists want the EPA to begin regulating ash ponds, which they claim contain hazardous substances. Sen. Corker said he is still studying what, if any, changes may be needed in how fly ash disposal is regulated.

On Thursday in Washington, D.C., the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will hear from TVA President Tom Kilgore and others during a hearing about the Kingston spill.

TDEC reported Monday that tests of 22 area wells and four area water intake locations showed the local water met all government drinking standards.

TVA spokeswoman Barbara Martocci also said the agency has completed construction of its first underwater dam to help prevent ash from flowing downstream into the Clinch River and is working to construct another, bigger such dam to help the future dredging of the Emory riverbed.

Nonetheless, Sen. Corker said he paused when someone handed him a cup of water Monday.

“I drank it,” he said, “and I feel pretty good.”

Sen. Corker said he was assured that TVA will not use the same holding area again for fly ash. Gov. Phil Bredesen also has pledged that the Department of Environment and Conservation will be stricter in its oversight of coal ash disposal in the future.

Ms. Martocci said TVA has yet to put a price tag or timetable on the ash cleanup, which currently involves 150 people, 40 contractors and 74 pieces of heavy equipment. Sen. Corker said he expects there will be “all kinds of ancillary costs associated with this cleanup that people haven’t even thought about.”

Critics of coal suggest the Kingston accident underscores the potential costs and problems with burning coal. But Sen. Corker said coal still supplies a majority of the electricity generated by TVA.

“As a country, we need to create the right balance,” he said. “We have huge coal reserves in our country that many utilities are dependent upon and I’ve seen some of the concerns that exist about coal. But I think coal is going to be here for a while and in the interim we need to make sure that as we burn coal we do so in a clean and responsible way.”

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