Tenn. Ash Spill Cleanup Slow; Cause Still Unknown

DUNCAN MANSFIELD

HARRIMAN, Tenn. (AP) — Glen Daugherty watches from his wooden dock, just beyond his prized pontoon boat, as a floating dredging machine growls from across the channel of the Emory River.

When it isn't broken down, the machine has been slowly sucking up tons of coal ash that spilled six months ago from the Kingston Fossil Plant a few hundred yards upriver.

The Tennessee Valley Authority, owner and operator of the giant coal-fired Kingston plant, calls this progress. Daugherty, 67, who once delivered coal from local mines to the Kingston plant, just sees shattered dreams.

"I was going to be here the rest of my life," he said. "Now I don't know what I am going to do."

A Dec. 22 breach in an earthen dike unleashed 5.4 million cubic yards of toxic-laden ash into the river and 26 lakeside homes, covering some 300 acres with grayish muck.

The 1,900-square-foot brick rancher that Glen and Evelyn Daugherty built on their little acre of paradise along the Emory River in 1991 wasn't damaged by the spill. But it's now part of the cleanup zone. Most of their neighbors have moved or are moving with buyouts from the nation's largest public utility — TVA has paid out $20 million so far.