Heavy Metals Disaster
ASU and Appalachian Voices partner to test water from Tennessee ash spill

By Jeff Eason

It’s been compared to the Exxon Valdese oil spill and called the worst environmental disaster in Tennessee history. Yet, few media organizations have spent time publicizing the event and Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen has yet to call the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for federal assistance in the cleanup.

It, in this case, is the giant ash spill of Dec. 22 at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston Fossil Plant on the Emory River, a tributary of the Tennessee River just west of Knoxville. The spill, attributed by the TVA to recent heavy rains, occurred when a 50-foot-tall wall of an ash pond collapsed, allowing an estimated 1 billion gallons of wet coal ash, known to contain dangerous heavy metals, to spread across 300 acres of farmland and into the Emory River.

Concerned about the environmental impact of the disaster, two local organizations have stepped up to test water quality of the Emory and Tennessee rivers. Appalachian Voices and Appalachian State University worked to test samples of the water at three different sites down river from the Kingston Fossil Plant, although not without some resistance from the TVA itself.

Five days after the ash spill, Upper Watauga riverkeeper Donna Lisenby and Appalachian Voices field coordinator Sandra Dias traveled from Boone to Kingston to see the damage for themselves and obtain test samples from the river.

“I first got an e-mail from John Wathen, who is the Hurricane Creek Riverkeeper that he forwarded from the people of Tennessee who were asking for help,” said Lisenby. “I thought I could help because I had just recently created a partnership with ASU’s environmental toxicology lab to test for heavy metals in water in Appalachia, and this would be a great example of how that partnership could do a public service.”

Lisenby contacted Wathen and told him that she and ASU had the capability to test water samples for the presence of heavy metals. When Diaz heard of the proposed trip to Kingston, she signed up for the chance to document the event for Appalachian Voices.

“We were trying to come up with something to put on our Web site, and I had gotten obsessed about it,” said Diaz. “I felt a little powerless, so when Donna invited me, I realized that was something I could do. I took pictures and videos while they were testing the water.”

Diaz and Lisenby left Boone around 5:30 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 27, and drove to Harriman, Tenn., with kayaks, recording equipment, water testing equipment and other supplies.

With 10 years experience as a riverkeeper, Lisenby has seen her share of environmental disasters. But that experience only partially prepared her for what she would find in Kingston.

“I’ve worked on massive multimillion gallon sewage spills and huge fish kills,” said Lisenby. “I’ve worked oil, diesel and chemical spills. I remember one gas spill so bad that everybody was afraid to crank our boat motors because we thought a spark might set the river on fire. I worked on the Great Falls J.P. Stevens fire in Great Falls, S.C., where the whole town was evacuated. So, I’ve got a lot of knowledge and experience about working on river disasters.

“I have never seen anything as bad as this spill.”

In video taken by Diaz, you can see Lisenby and Wathen as they paddle their way up the Emory River toward the Kingston Fossil Plant. The water is gray with ash, and dead fish float on the surface of the water. As they approached the plant, they were told by TVA security officers that the river was closed to boat traffic. Even after Lisenby explained that they were there to test the water, the officers gave them a citation for being on the river. The group was also followed on the river by two security helicopters.

“I have never encountered law enforcement officials who reacted to us the way the TVA people did,” said Lisenby. “In the case of the Great Falls fire, where the entire town was evacuated, the South Carolina Department of Environmental Control actually asked me to go and take them out on the river to test the hydrochloric acid-laden runoff. In the case of the chemical plant explosion, we checked in with the incident commander of Burke County, the hazmat commander of the firefighters and emergency response and worked with them to complete the fish-kill assessment.

“I just never expected to be chased by the TVA security officers on the water and have helicopters fly over our heads several times. I’ve never had any regulatory agency whatsoever ask me to leave a disaster site when I was there doing testing on behalf of the public good. Never.”

TVA security officers told Lisenby that they had been deputized by the United States Coast Guard to keep everyone away from that portion of the river due to the spill. Lisenby and Appalachian Voices have since asked the Coast Guard about the situation, but have yet to receive a response.

“The free-flowing waters of the United States belong to the people,” said Lisenby. “That’s a public trust asset. No single entity can own the water at all.”

Despite being told to leave the river, Lisenby was able to secure water samples at three different locations on the Emory River: at the Kingston Plant intake canal, one half mile down river, and two miles down river. According to the pair, they saw no evidence of any cleanup efforts while they were on the river that Saturday.

After securing the water samples and putting them on ice, Lisenby and Sandra drove back to Boone.

By a stroke of coincidence, Lisenby had previously approached the ASU Environmental Toxicology Department about forming a partnership to test freshwater runoff from mountaintop removal sites for heavy metals. That partnership then was first put to use to test the water samples from the Emory River.

The proposed partnership would utilize the skills of ASU scientists Dr. Carol Babyak, associate professor of chemistry and Dr. Shea Tuberty, associate professor of biology.

“When the spill came up, I approached them and said, ‘Okay, this is not exactly what we talked about, but still it is heavy metals. Will you analyze some samples if I collect them?’ And they said ‘sure.’”

Lisenby returned to Boone with the water samples properly iced, with chain of custody controls and all of them in triplicate. They then brought them to ASU’s environmental toxicology lab the following Monday. The samples were tested for 17 different heavy metals.

Preliminary testing reveals concentrations of eight toxic chemicals that range from twice to 300 times higher than drinking water limits, according to Tuberty and Babyak. Arsenic levels from the power plant’s intake canal were close to 300 times the allowable amounts in drinking water, while a sample from two miles downstream revealed arsenic at 30 times the allowable amount. Lead was present between twice to 21 times the legal drinking water limit, and thallium levels tested at three to four times the allowable amounts.

“I have never seen levels of arsenic, lead and copper this high in natural waters,” said Babyak.

The heavy metals found in the Emory River are disturbing to scientists for a number of reasons. Because of the porous topography in the Kingston and Harriman region, well and spring water contamination is one concern. Another is the accumulation of heavy metals in the fatty tissues of fish that could enter the food chain.

“The highest risk you can have with these heavy metals is actually ingesting them,” said Tuberty. “Either drinking them or eating them is really the only way it will become an issue, unless you are breathing them. That is coming into play with these ash piles, from drying and becoming picked up from the winds. You can actually breathe them in and that’s the third way you can become exposed to them.”

There has been no word from the state of Tennessee or the TVA on when residents will be able to use that portion of the Emory River again. According to Tuberty, recreation on Watts Bar Lake and nearby regions could be affected for some time to come.

Meanwhile, the TVA has stated that it is conducting its own test to determine the level of heavy metals in the river.

“TVA has every confidence in the integrity of its sampling methodologies, as well as those of the Tennessee Department of Environmental and Conservation and the Environmental Protection Agency,” said Jim Allen, a spokesman for the power authority. “TVA is also obtaining independent sampling.”

The ash spill disaster could become a rallying cry for many environmentalists who believe that there is no such thing as “clean coal” when it comes to producing electricity. Diaz’ videos of their trip to the Emory River have already been seen thousands of times on YouTube and on the Appalachian Voices Web site, with many viewers responding with comments such as “Where’s FEMA?”

“Ash ponds are unregulated and unlined,” said Lisenby. “Environmentalists have made a petition to the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) to classify them as hazardous waste. Coal combustion waste contains heavy metals and should be classified as hazardous waste. Under the George Bush administration that effort was turned back.

“Our test results that we got in partnership with ASU show us that this stuff is very toxic to the aquatic environment and it should be regulated as a hazardous waste.”

Lisenby and Diaz plan to return to the Emory River this week to retest the water for heavy metals.