TVA to auction 62 parcels in Kingston after ash spill cleanup completed

The Tennessee Valley Authority, which spent nearly $1.1 billion over the past six years to clean up and compensate for the coal ash spill at its Kingston Fossil Plant, hopes to recover a small piece of those damages by selling back some of the property it has reclaimed.
The Tennessee Valley Authority, which spent nearly $1.1 billion over the past six years to clean up and compensate for the coal ash spill at its Kingston Fossil Plant, hopes to recover a small piece of those damages by selling back some of the property it has reclaimed.

The Tennessee Valley Authority, which spent nearly $1.1 billion over the past six years to clean up and compensate for the coal ash spill at its Kingston Fossil Plant, hopes to recover a small piece of those damages by selling back some of the property it has reclaimed.

TVA said Thursday it has retained J.P. King Auction Co. to sell 62 residential properties near the Kingston plant at a public auction scheduled for Saturday, July 25, starting at 11 a.m. The absolute auction includes up to 19 waterfront properties, four water view homes and 39 other nearby lots.

The sites to be sold were acquired by TVA following the December 2008 collapse of a TVA-built earthen dam, which spilled nearly 5.4 million cubic yards of coal ash into the Emory River and shoreline.

photo Water vapor streams from the top of a scrubber tower Wednesday afternoon in Harriman, Tenn., at the Kingston Fossil Plant in this 2012 file photo.

TVA directors voted earlier this month to sell 77 acres of restored property in Kingston where homeowners sold their parcels to TVA while cleanup efforts were underway for years.

The properties will be auctioned off and sold to the highest bidders, regardless of price.

Following the 2008 Kingston ash spill, TVA committed to restoring the area to as good as or better than it was before the spill. The first two years of the recovery project required around-the-clock remediation efforts with heavy equipment on land and in the Emory River. The sounds of the heavy equipment and the lights needed to support night time activities were audible and visible to nearby property owners. Therefore, TVA purchased these properties along Emory River Road.

As of December 2014, all major construction associated with the recovery and restoration of the Swan Pond area is complete. The landfill is lined and closed and Emory River has returned to pre-spill conditions.

In June, detailed information about the sites to be auctioned will be available at www.jpking.com.

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