The spill of coal ash sludge released 5.4 million cubic yards of toxic waste, covering more than 300 acres of land. Homes were flooded, coal ash spilled into nearby Watts Bar Lake, contaminating the Emory River and causing a train wreck.
Workers respond to calls from union halls for disaster jobs. No training or information on coal ash given, not even the required MSDS.
EPA, Coast Guard mobilize strike force teams. TVA withholds MSDS from emergency responders; later supplies one that is from 2001 and inaccurate.
EPA strike force team records radiation readings from coal ash are six to eight times higher than background soil. TVA notified. TVA tells public coal ash is harmless and not radioactive.
EPA strike force shut down. EPA turns over site authority to TVA and Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.
OSHA receives anonymous complaint that workers are being exposed to high levels of arsenic and radioactive materials in the coal ash.
TVA inks a contract with Jacobs Engineering Inc., to manage the clean up. The firm has no prior experience in coal ash handling. Jacobs demands protection if workers are sickened and sue. TVA agrees to pay the firm’s legal bills and damages award.
TDEC publicly posts the agency’s Kingston coal ash sampling results showing high levels of arsenic and radioactive heavy metals.
TDEC removes that post and replaces it – without public notice – with a report altered to drastically reduce levels of radioactive heavy metals. The new report closely aligns with TVA’s test results.
Spring of 2009: Radioactive material is dredged up during the operation to remove coal ash from the Emory River. Workers handling the material were not notified. Work quickly resumed, with TVA and Jacobs blaming Oak Ridge for dumping Cesium 137 in the Emory.
Team from Duke University records high levels of radioactive heavy metals and arsenic in the Kingston coal ash. TVA notified, says the utility will look that research over.
Jacobs refuses all worker safety measures, including waterproof coveralls, respiratory protection, decontamination showers, changing rooms and specialized training on the dangers of coal ash.
Summer of 2009: Workers begin reporting common ailments, including skin rashes, nose bleeds, migraines, low testosterone, breathing difficulties. Complaints ignored, explained away.
Jacobs orders monitoring for radioactive heavy metals to stop. Early results were later sent to a disreputable lab and voided as a result, leaving no defensible data on radioactivity of the Kingston coal ash.
Workers spray down a vehicle leaving the cleanup area of the Kingston Fossil Plant coal ash spill site. All vehicles leaving the site must be cleaned as part of the cleanup, which could cost as much as $1.2 billion.
EPA audit of the clean up site conducted in October 2009 — 10 months after the clean up began — in which Jacobs was criticized for having no showers or changing rooms for the laborers. "This needs to be addressed," the audit said. "Workers should be required to change into clean clothes prior to leaving the site."
Jacobs strips from the Site Wide Safety and Health Plan promised worker protections, including an on-site doctor. Kingston coal ash begins arriving by railcar to a landfill in Union Town, Ala., flagged as radioactive. Workers there are required to wear respiratory and skin protection. Citizens around the landfill later reported illnesses related to coal ash dust.
Spring 2010: More workers lodge complaints, some in writing, with both Jacobs and TVA, of serious respiratory ailments, nose bleeds, strokes and other health issues. Site supervisors warn workers they’ll be fired if they keep complaining.
Workers begin secretly recording supervisors who threaten their jobs and alleged tampering with worker safety threat level monitoring devices.
Some workers begin demanding masks, a few buy their own. Jacobs’ safety manager Tom Bock orders workers to remove masks; eventually, he destroyed all masks on site.
TVA contract workers remove coal ash from the edge of the Emory River next to the Kingston Fossil Plant on Thursday, Nov. 8, 2012, as part of the cleanup from the December 2008 spill. The Environmental Protection Agency announced on Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2012, it has approved TVA's preferred plan for dealing with the final phase of the cleanup.
TVA supervisors knew as early as 2013 workers were complaining of common symptoms of coal ash exposure, including skin rashes, breathing ailments and migraines, but didn’t document them or act on them. One TVA supervisor admitted in a sworn deposition firing a worker who insisted on protective breathing gear.
A small group of workers file a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against Jacobs Engineering, the contractor handling the clean up.
Chief U.S. District Judge Tom Varlan dismisses the lawsuit.
All phases of cleanup at the Kingston Fossil Plant were complete in 2015. The completion report from TVA to EPA was finalized in August.
Knox News publishes a series detailing the mistreatment of workers, including deception, denial of protective gear, threatened firings, safety testing tampering, and revealing for the first time the rising death toll of at least two dozen. TVA denies all allegations as does Jacobs.
Signs posted at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston Fossil Fuel Plant in Roane County this month warn fly ash “may cause damage to lungs after repeatedly/prolonged exposure.” It requires workers to wear masks, which TVA is providing. During the $1.2 billion cleanup that followed, TVA blocked use of the label "hazardous waste" and references to hazardous materials on signs. The work was completed in 2015.
Another 200 sickened workers are identified as a result of the newspaper’s series.
A federal jury rules Jacobs violated its contract with TVA and endangered workers as a result. The jury also rules the workers had proved coal ash exposure was the likely cause of their illnesses.
TVA admits it is still doing business with Jacobs to the tune of $200 million. Evidence of coal ash constituent contamination of groundwater test wells at TVA’s current coal ash landfill at the Kingston plant.
Randy Ellis, chairman of Roane Co. Commission, led a memorial service for the dozens of dead disaster relief workers of the Kingston coal ash spill.
Varlan orders Jacobs to try to mediate with workers in hopes of reaching a settlement that would provide medical testing and treatment for sickened workers and their immediate families.
TVA admits via a quarterly earnings report it made a deal to cover damages if Jacobs loses the lawsuit.
Knox News reveals workers are still being exposed to radioactive coal ash without protection at TVA’s Kingston and Bull Run plants and documents coal ash contaminating a playground in Claxton, Tenn.
Knoxville News Sentinel investigative journalist Jamie Satterfield's reporting on the aftermath of the 2008 coal ash spill at TVA’s Kingston Fossil Plant was named the winner in the community journalism category of the 66th Scripps Howard Awards.
A rally was held in the chapel at First Presbyterian Church in downtown Knoxville. Workers’ Memorial Day is officially observed in communities across the U.S. and Canada each year on April 28.
Read story by clicking link "Find out more"
Ansol Clark constructed a memorial near the Kingston Fossil Plant in Kingston, Tennessee. The memorial is for workers who have come down with illnesses following the clean up.
Wives of sickened clean up workers testify before TVA Board. TVA’s nine-member board offered sympathy, but nothing else. More than 30 volunteers with the Sierra Club and the Interfaith and Labor Council dressed in black and rose to their feet for each of the women as they spoke.
First responder families from Knoxville testified in Washington on behalf of sickened workers and family members, asking for help and protection.
Enter story info here
Over 50 people gathered to protest Jacobs Engineering holding signs, candles and wearing dust masks. Click "find out more" to read article and see video footage from the protest.
Julie Bledsoe spoke to the EPA in response to proposed changes to loosen restrictions on CCR disposal and storage.
Knox News reveals sickened Kingston workers were pressured by a mediator hired by Jacobs and their own attorneys to take a settlement that would have forced them to never speak of what happened to them again. Workers reject the $10 million offer, most of which would have gone to their attorneys.
A virtual Facebook event including a film screening and discussion panel was held to demonstrate the dangers and inequities of coal ash. This event focused on the Kingston spill and the events that followed.
Knox News reveals TDEC slashed radiological readings in its report on the Kingston coal ash spill. The newspaper also unveils its own coal ash testing – which revealed levels of radioactive heavy metals five times that claimed by TDEC and TVA.
TVA, honor your promise and provide health care for the Kingston coal ash cleanup workers! - Urges Janie in the petition's title. To sign the petition, click the link below.
Doug Bledsoe is the 50th Kingston disaster relief worker who has died from illnesses that some workers and their families say are linked to exposure to the ingredients of coal ash waste since the seven-year cleanup of the nation’s largest coal ash spill ended. Doug Bledsoe was 69.
Julie, wife of Kingston worker, testified before the House Natural Resources Committee participating in the Environmental Justice Now Tour: Appalachia
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