Staff Photo by Patrick Smith Workers continue to remove the coal fly ash sediment covering over 300 acres near Harriman, Tenn. TVA has covered the sludge with grass seed, fertilizer and straw blanket the Swan Pond Circle Road area after TVA's Dec. 22 coal fly ash spill.
An independent report on water, sediment and fish samples collected after the Dec. 22 Kingston Fossil Plant ash spill shows high toxin levels and a fish population at the toxic “tipping point” of losing reproductive ability.
The report estimates the ash sludge contains 3,380 tons of the 10 most toxic elements in fly ash.
“Overall, these test results indicate much more severe impacts to water, sediment and fish than has been previously reported by TVA, which tells us they haven’t been sampling in the right places,” said Watauga Riverkeeper Donna Lisenby of Appalachian Voices, an environmental organization based in Boone, N.C.
Scientists with Appalachian State University, Wake Forest University, the Tennessee Aquarium and Appalachian Voices released the study Monday online and in a telephone conference call.
Tennessee Valley Authority spokesman Gil Francis said agency officials are reviewing the report.
“Early on we got data from some of these folks and we said, ‘Show us where you are collecting this so we can go back and make sure we haven’t missed anything,’” he said.
Mr. Francis said the agency has “numerous studies in progress to make sure we understand all the issues.”
“We’ll put that information out there as soon as we get it available,” he said.
WHAT’S IN THE WATER
Study findings in the river water at the spill site:
Arsenic — 260 times the drinking water standard
Barium — 3.65 times the drinking water standard
Cadmium — 3 times the drinking water standard
Lead — 16 times the drinking water standard
Selenium — 1.9 times the Tennessee acute aquatic life criteria and 7.6 times the Tennessee chronic aquatic life criteria
Source: Preliminary Summary Report, Appalachian State University, Appalachian Voices, Tennessee Aquarium and Wake Forest University
The TVA’s 60-foot-high ash landfill in Kingston broke open three days before Christmas 2008 and dumped 1.1 billion gallons of coal ash sludge into the Emory River and over 300 acres of residential farm land.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced last week it is assuming regulatory oversight of the cleanup but did not respond Monday to requests for comment on the independent study results.
TVA officials have said the ash is nonhazardous and that the agency is cleaning up the spilled material.
FISH REPRODUCTION
University scientists said they expect the toxicity levels — particularly of selenium — to rise, especially with the dredging the agency recently began. The study states additional intake of selenium severely could affect fish reproduction.
Fish reproductive systems soon likely could be so damaged from the toxic levels of selenium that their eggs and young will die, and their population eventually will be eliminated, said Dr. Dennis Lemly, adjunct professor of biology at Wake Forest University.
The report states selenium concentrations in fish species in the Emory River are “at toxic thresholds.”
“This means that the river ecosystem cannot tolerate further assimilation of selenium from the ash spill,” the report states. “There is no margin of safety.”
Dr. Lemly said findings of such high levels indicate the landfill had been leaking before the December breach.
“If we started with a clean ecosystem and started to put selenium in and let it bioaccumulate into fish tissues, we’d expect it to take 30 days for that to happen,” Dr. Lemly said. “What we saw in the fish in the Emory River is that those fish were already contaminated by selenium to toxic threshold concentrations at only 18 days following the spill.”
He said there is an implication “for public health as well,” because selenium bioaccumulates up the food chain. The professor noted fish consumption warnings already exist on the river because of PCB and mercury levels.
arsenic concerns
The study also found lead oxides and high arsenic levels on 10 percent of the site’s samples of cenospheres — particles of filmy silica seen floating on the surface of water when released from the ash. TVA officials have said the cenospheres were inert.
Dr. Shea Tuberty, associate professor of biology at Appalachian State, said the cenospheres were coated with iron oxides, which collect and bind to arsenic and other toxins. Arsenic was not present on the cenospheres that were not coated with iron oxides, he said.
“It is likely that arsenic is not the only heavy metal that adheres to the iron oxide coating on the ash particle, but further study is necessary to confirm this,” the report states.
Ms. Lisenby and Dr. Tuberty said the research group has taken new and more intense water and fish samplings for a study it expects to release in June.
In those samplings they took water and sediment samples from three levels in the water, as well as a bank-to-bank sampling.
