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The Kingston Ash Spill

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Behind a sign on Swan Pond Circle Road, construction equipment sits dormant.

Frank Carlson

Behind a sign on Swan Pond Circle Road, construction equipment sits dormant.

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  • Behind a sign on Swan Pond Circle Road, construction equipment sits dormant.
  • Phyllis Ellis (right) and Sheila Steelman (left) live across from the Kingston Steam Plant. A year from now, they hope to live elsewhere.
  • A view of Swan Pond Road, the church slough, and the cleanup site from the graveyard of Swan Pond Methodist Church.
  • Located about 40 miles west of Knoxville and built around tourism, retirement and recreation, the city of Kingston is now associated with the largest industrial spill in U.S. history.
  • Sheila Steelman's home sits directly across from the Kingston plant, one of 12 homes on Swan Pond Road not yet purchased by TVA. It wasn't directly hit by the spill, but Steelman says her family's suffered respiratory problems from ash in the air. TVA says EPA has tested her home and found no ash.
  • The Kingston stacks, the failed dredge cell and a former resident's mailbox from Swan Pond Circle Road, which was directly in the path of the wave of ash last December.
  • The steam plant's stacks sit on the city of Kingston's northern horizon.
  • Steve McCracken is head of the ash-spill cleanup at TVA. He came to TVA from the Dept. of Energy, where he spent many years working on industrial remediation. He says it's going to take time to regain the confidence of the people in the area.
  • The Kingston plant's stacks and scrubber, which was recently completed at a cost of $500 million. Lately slackened demand and the high cost of disposing the coal waste have kept the burners off.
  • The church slough, fed by a spring, was once filled with ash. It now represents TVA's vision for the river work when complete. 'This is the example we want to set,' says TVA spokeswoman Katie Kline.
  • Standing water from a ditch in Sheila Steelman's yard.
  • Signs posted on Swan Pond Road remind passersby to keep moving.
  • Police cars operate around the clock to direct traffic during the frequent railcar loadings.
  • The dredge cell that failed on Dec. 22 is now a grassy, terraced mound. Before being converted into a dredge cell, it was an inlet where residents swam and performed baptisms.

One year after the nation's largest environmental disaster, we take a look at the progress that's been made to correct it.

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