TVA - Coal Ash Cleanup Will Take Years, Cost Hundreds Of Millions - KnoxvilleBiz.com

[hatrack]

The cleanup of the Kingston fly ash spill will take years and could cost hundreds of millions of dollars, a Tennessee Valley Authority spokeswoman told a group of Knoxville engineers and other technophiles Monday.

TVA spokeswoman Barbara Martocci gave an update on the cleanup during a luncheon of the Technological Society of Knoxville at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. TVA officials have submitted a Phase I dredging plan for the Emory River but haven’t forged a long-term plan, Martocci said. “It will probably take years,” she said. “We know the dredging alone in the river will take months. … Is it one year? Is it 10 years? We don’t know.”

TVA officials have said they’re spending $1 million a day to clean up the spill, which occurred in the early morning hours of Dec. 22. The failure of a retention pond at the Kingston Fossil Plant sent 5.4 million cubic yards of fly ash, a by-product of coal combustion, into the Emory River and surrounding countryside. No one was killed or seriously injured, but three homes were destroyed.

According to Martocci, the cost of the cleanup is as uncertain as its duration. “I’ve heard (TVA president and CEO Tom) Kilgore say hundreds of millions (of dollars), but no, we don’t know,” Martocci said when answering a question from the audience.

EDIT

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2009/feb/10/tva-cleanup-take-years/