State regulators announced today that four East Tennessee landfills have been approved to receive small amounts of coal ash from a major spill last December at a TVA power plant.

The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation approved limited test runs to the four landfills starting July 15.

The four Class I landfills approved for the limited test runs are at the Chestnut Ridge in Anderson and Knox counties, Matlock Bend in Loudon County, Volunteer Regional landfill in Scott County and Meadow Branch landfill in McMinn County. The affected landfills are equipped with liners, collection systems and monitoring wells, and TVA will only be allowed to send five to 10 truckloads of ash to each site.

A Dec. 22 dike breach at TVA’s Kingston Fossil Plant released more than 5 million cubic yards of ash into the Emory River and several homes, covering 300 acres.

TDEC spokeswoman Tisha Calabrese-Benton said the approval does not necessarily mean that the Tennessee Valley Authority will dispose its ash at those sites.

TVA also has asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for permission to ship up to 3 million cubic yards of ash to a landfill in Alabama, although EPA is still reviewing the request.