Memorial to workers of coal ash cleanup in Kingston, TN

From an Article by Travis Liller, AP News, May 30, 2022

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — In 2013, the first of more than 200 workers who labored to clean up the nation’s worst coal ash spill filed a suit against the contractor, blaming Jacobs Engineering for illnesses they believe were caused by exposure to heavy metals and radioactive particles in the ash. Nearly a decade later, not a single case has made it through the court system.

As the cases drag on, dozens who believed their work for the contractor made them sick have died.

They include people like Ansol Clark, who arrived at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston Fossil Plant just hours after the Dec. 22, 2008, spill, and got to work. He labored long hours in the coal ash sludge with few or no days off for months at a time until he became too sick to work in 2013. He died last year from a rare blood cancer that he believed was caused by exposure to the ash.

“Ansol never lived to see any justice,” his wife of almost 50 years, Janie Clark, said. “He never did — on earth.”

Over the years, Jacobs has made repeated attempts to have the suits thrown out. The Tennessee Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments on Wednesday in Jacob’s latest challenge to the workers’ lawsuits. The company wants a judge to dismiss most of the plaintiffs for failing to follow a procedure outlined in the Tennessee Silica Claims Priorities Act.

The law requires anyone pursuing claims for exposure to silica or mixed dust to file a doctor’s report concluding that the exposure is a “substantial contributing factor” to the patient’s illness. For plaintiffs bringing wrongful death claims on behalf of a loved one, they must also show the worker was exposed to the dust for at least five years. Workers with lung cancer are subject to the five-year provision too and additionally must show that their cancer was diagnosed at least 10 years after their first exposure to the dust.

In court filings, Jacobs said the vast majority of plaintiffs either didn’t file the doctor reports, filed inadequate reports, or didn’t meet the time restrictions. For example, one worker died from lung cancer in 2015, less than seven years after the spill, so should not be allowed to sue, according to Jacobs.

Attorneys for the workers argue the silica law was never meant to apply to cases like theirs. The act specifically refers to silica, which is just one component of coal ash. The components they believe caused the worker injuries include arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury and radium, but not silica. The law also refers to claims for very specific injuries — silicosis and pulmonary fibrosis — that are not at issue in this case.

In addition, the workers’ attorneys say it is simply too late to bring this challenge. The case already went through the first part of a two-part trial in 2018, when a Knoxville, Tennessee, jury found that Jacobs breached its duty of care to the workers. The jurors said Jacobs’ actions were capable of making the workers sick. Whether those actions actually did make them sick, and thus eligible for monetary damages, was left for a subsequent trial or trials.

Jacobs’ attorneys have said the company did its best to manage the cleanup in a way regulators said was safe. It has not been proven that Jacobs — or even coal ash — is to blame for any illnesses, and the EPA classifies coal ash as nonhazardous.

After the 2018 trial, the federal judge in the case ordered mediation, alluding to workers’ urgent need for medical care. Mediation was unsuccessful, but a new trial date has not been set as Jacobs continues to pursue legal challenges. Twice, the company has asked the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to find that it is immune from being sued because it was acting on behalf of the Tennessee Valley Authority, a federal agency. The court has ruled against Jacobs both times, most recently this month.

Doug Bledsoe didn’t live to see that small victory. Bledsoe was called to work at Kingston just days after the 2008 collapse of a six-story earthen dam released more than a billion gallons of coal ash sludge. The spill was so massive it knocked nearby homes off their foundations. As the sludge slowly dried over the yearslong course of the cleanup, it turned into a fine dust that had to be constantly watered down but still filled the air, especially on windy days, according to trial testimony.

Bledsoe drove a water truck there until 2014. In 2018, he was diagnosed with lung and brain cancer. He died two years later, leaving behind his wife of 38 years, Johnnie Bledsoe. The two began dating when she was 14 and Doug Bledsoe was her “whole world,” she said.

“Everything we done, we done together,” Johnnie Bledsoe said. “We raised cattle together. We had a farm together. All that’s stopped.” Last year Johnnie Bledsoe and Janie Clark received an American flag that had flown over the U.S. Capitol to honor the coal ash cleanup workers. Clark said it is the only official acknowledgement they have received of the suffering they’ve endured.

Before he died Ansol Clark built a wooden cross that he placed near the Kingston plant as a memorial to the workers. Janie Clark said she plans to go there this weekend to change the flowers, as she does regularly.

“I’ll be doing that as long as I can get up the hill,” Clark said. “I do not intend to let this be forgotten.”

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See Also: Coal Ash Is Hazardous. Coal Ash Is Waste. But According to the EPA, Coal Ash Is Not “Hazardous Waste” ~ Jeff Turrentine, NRDC On Earth, September 6, 2019

Coal ash, a catchall term for several kinds of waste left over at power plants that burn coal, typically contains a number of substances harmful to human health—arsenic, chromium, lead, and mercury among them. Coal ash is incredibly dangerous. Short-term exposure can bring irritation of the nose and throat, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and shortness of breath. Long-term exposure can lead to liver damage, kidney damage, cardiac arrhythmia, and a variety of cancers. Every year hundreds of American coal plants generate about 110 million tons of the stuff. Most of it gets mixed with water and stored in sludgy basins commonly known as coal ash ponds, which have an unfortunate tendency to leak or flood or spill, sometimes in catastrophic amounts.

A few days before Christmas in 2008, more than a billion gallons of coal ash slurry poured out of a Kingston, Tennessee, power plant, spilling into local waterways and swamping 15 homes after the six-story earthen dam that had been containing it collapsed. The incident remains, to this day, the largest industrial spill in American history. More than 900 workers were quickly dispatched to clean up the mess, a massive effort that took five years. When those same workers began to get sick and even die under conditions that strongly suggested coal ash poisoning, 200 of them sued the contractor that had employed them, alleging that they had been greatly misled about the dangers of their exposure. A Tennessee jury last November found that the contractor had indeed jeopardized the health of its workers through its actions, but the case is ongoing, and no monetary damages have yet been paid.

Despite the protests of many whose lives have been affected by this demonstrably toxic substance, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has for years refused to classify coal ash as hazardous waste. Instead, the agency continues to regard coal ash as solid waste — the same designation, believe it or not, given to household garbage.

Appalachian Voices are speaking out about solar energy

From Appalachian Voices in Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia & West Virginia

Dear Colleagues and Friends, Join Us on November 4th ~

Thank you for signing up to learn more about the Appalachian Solar Finance Fund (SFF), a new program to jump-start commercial and institutional solar projects in coal-impacted communities throughout Central Appalachia! We’re excited to announce that the program will launch on Thursday, November 4 with a webinar at noon Eastern Time and invite you to join! Please RSVP to attend.

The SFF will use a recent $1.5 million ARC POWER Initiative award to deploy select subgrant awards for solar projects on nonprofit and public buildings. The SFF also will facilitate competitive technical assistance contracts for solar installations on commercial enterprises and will develop additional investment and credit enhancement strategies to unlock more solar deployment in the region.

During this webinar, attendees will learn about the program’s available financing tools, applicant eligibility criteria and the application process for entities and developers seeking funding for solar projects. Members of the SFF Executive Committee will discuss the history of the fund, its purpose and goals, and the structure of the program.

Speakers include the following four (4) involved individuals:

>> Adam Wells, Regional Director of Community & Economic Development, Appalachian Voices

>> Hannah Vargason, Associate Director of Strategic Initiatives, Partner Community Capital

>> Marc Palmer, Co-Founder and CEO, New Resource Solutions

>> Andrew Crosson, CEO, Invest Appalachia

The presentation will be followed by a Q&A. Commercial, government and nonprofit building owners and facilities managers, and solar developers and installation professionals are encouraged to attend and bring questions about the process. The public is also welcome to attend to learn more about the program and how it works.

RSVP to join us on November 4th! I’m looking forward to seeing you there!

Cheers, Autumn Long
Appalachian Solar Finance Fund Project Manager

RSVP

Blount County at Walland School (11/17/16)

Gatlinburg and Pidgeon Forge  in Tennessee are now being evacuated

(Some 43 Photos are Accessible on Blount County, TN)

From an Article by Steve Ahillen, Knoxville Times-Sentinel, November 20, 2016

Knoxville, Tenn. — Forest fires that have burned more than 119,000 acres in eight states and have people from Asheville to Atlanta smelling smoke continue to rage through most of the Southeast.

More than 6,300 firefighters, some from as far as Alaska, are fighting fires that range from just a few acres to one in the Cohutta Wilderness in northern Georgia that has burned 27,000. That fire has burned more than a month and is just 20 percent contained. A total of 74 aircraft, including Black Hawk helicopters and BAE tanker jets, have been used.

The Southern Coordination Center in Atlanta has overseen the fire response, coordinating efforts with a myriad of federal, state and local agencies and fire departments. The center’s Dave Martin said he can’t be sure if the extent of the fires is unprecedented, but it is the biggest he can remember.

“It has been quite a while since we had had this number of large fires at this many locations,” he said. “The last time it was comparable was in 2001 and even then it wasn’t this busy.”

States that have been dealing with fires are Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama. The fires taken together are even starting to rival the mammoth blazes of the west. The Big Sur fire in late July burned around 132,000 acres.

PHOTO: A wildfire in Blount County on Thursday, November 17, 2016 near Walland Elementary School has burned 20-80 acres of land and could spread to 200 acres. 

A severe drought that has gripped the South — in some areas since spring — has been the big catalyst.

“The lower humidity and significant lack of precipitation for more than three months have made a perfect environment for fires to spread,” said the center’s Adam Rondeau. “It makes them faster and stronger.” Rondeau said there have been 50 major fires – fires that burn more than 100 acres.

No lives have been lost. Only minor injuries and minimum property damage have been reported, Martin said. Several structures have been damaged including one residence, a house near Trenton, Ga.

However, the smoke, especially dense in the Tennessee Valley in cities like Knoxville and Chattanooga, has sent hundreds of people to emergency rooms with respiratory problems.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s Air Quality Index has in the past few weeks occasionally placed affected cities in the red “unhealthy” level, an indication that “everyone may begin to experience health effects.”

PHOTO: Smoke from a forest fire billows over the Little River on Thursday, Nov. 17, 2016, in Walland.  

The Appalachian Trail is closed in parts of Georgia and North Carolina. Campfires have been banned in the 655,598-acre Cherokee National Forest that straddles the North Carolina-Tennessee line with stretches both north and south of the Great Smoky Mountains National Forest, which is also closed to burning.

And, the drought and forest fire situation could go on for months, experts say.

“The forecast for December, January and February show the odds of below-normal precipitation are high for the Southeast,” said Matthew Rosencrans, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center in Washington, D.C.

Meanwhile, beef cattle aren’t getting their hay in East Tennessee and cattlemen are selling off some stock. Farmers from the cotton fields of north Alabama to the tobacco farms of North Carolina are taking their hits. The Tennessee Valley Authority has cut in half the amount of hydroelectric power it usually generates this time of year from its reservoirs in East Tennessee to hold back water for what may be ahead.

PHOTO: In this Nov. 7, 2016, photo, two major fires burn at the Flipper Bend area atop Walden Ridge, seen from the Montlake neighborhood of Soddy-Daisy, Tenn. 

Even the Christmas tree salesmen are concerned the drought and stress will cause the trees to have a shorter healthy span when they reach living rooms.

“I used to say the trees would stay green (through the holiday season) without a problem,” said Leo Collins, who owns Bluebird Christmas Tree Farm north of Knoxville, “but I’m not so cocky this year.”

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net