Seventeen years have passed since a massive rupture at a Tennessee Valley Authority plant spilled more than 1.1 billion gallons of coal ash into Harriman, Tennessee, but the event is still raw in Jessica Waller’s mind.
Waller’s father, Ernest Hickman, a union contractor for Jacobs Engineering Group, worked on cleanup of the spill.
Hickman died of emphysema, which Waller attributes to his contact with the ash over a six-year cleanup period — specifically beryllium, a naturally occurring metal used in the nuclear, automotive and aerospace industries, and arsenic, which is used in metal, technology and some medical uses.
Both are present in coal fly ash and are highly toxic.
She believes her mother, Patsy Hickman, also got ill from exposure after washing her husband’s clothes and other activities putting her in contact with the ash, causing her death of respiratory failure.