KINGSTON, Tenn. — Victims of the 2008 Kingston Coal Ash Spill traveled hundreds of miles to push the Environmental Protection Agency for tighter safety rules.
Currently, the EPA does not have monitoring and cleanup requirements for inactive coal ash landfills and legacy unlined ponds. They held a meeting on coal combustion on Wednesday in Chicago, where victims planned to urge federal officials to adopt changes to how coal ash is regulated.
Betty Johnson was among them. Her husband helped clean up the aftermath from the Kingston Coal Ash Spill. He passed away in May after years of health issues, and Johnson said the health issues were caused by toxic fumes.
"They took all that from him, and I took it from my family, and I'm very upset about it," she said. "One thing after another, his body was just deteriorating. And it's certainly from the coal ash."
In December 2008, a holding cell at the TVA Kingston steam plant containing liquid coal ash collapsed, spreading slurry across hundreds of surrounding acres. The ash was the byproduct of burning coal to create energy.
TVA tapped Jacobs Engineering to hire workers to clean up the huge spill, which cost TVA more than $1 billion.
In 2013, the first of more than 200 workers who labored to clean up the nation's worst coal ash spill filed a lawsuit against the contractor. They said they were exposed to heavy metals and radioactive particles in the coal ash that led to severe illnesses. Dozens of the workers who brought lawsuits against the company died as the cases dragged on.
"My husband would blow his nose, and it would be gray," said Julie Bledsoe. "We were not educated about coal ash, had no reason to be, didn't know anything about it — but boy, we are now," she said.
She said she does not want any family or community to experience what she did. She also urged the EPA to close loopholes on coal ash cleanups.
In May, Jacobs Engineering settled a lawsuit with workers involved in the coal ash spill.