Kingston Fossil Plant has 42 groundwater monitoring wells, 19 of which have been polluted above federal advisory levels based on samples collected between January 13, 2010 and October 09, 2019. Groundwater at this site contains unsafe levels of cobalt, sulfate, arsenic, selenium, manganese, molybdenum, lithium, beryllium and lead.
Site descriptionThe Kingston Fossil Plant is a coal-fired power station owned and operated by Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in Kingston, Tennessee in Roane County. The nine coal units at Kingston were built in the 1950s. At the time it was the largest coal plant in the world with a total capacity of 1,398-MW. Kingston is notorious as the site of the largest coal ash spill in United States history. On December 22, 2008, the ash dredge cell at the Kingston plant collapsed, spilling 5.4 million cubic yards of ash into local waterways and over 300 acres of land. Due to this spill, the U.S. EPA lists Kingston as a proven damage case. The Peninsula Disposal Area located southeast of the plant is regulated under the CCR rule.
You can find the industry reported data here. For more information about Kingston Fossil Plant, see EIP's reports: TVA's Toxic Legacy and EIP's 2019 National Coal Ash Report Coal's Poisonous Legacy.
For more information about coal ash in Tennessee, see Earthjustice's fact sheet, Tennessee and Coal Ash Disposal in Ponds and Landfill.