Kingston coal ash cleanup workers still seek damages more than 13 years after spill

In December 2008, the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston Fossil Plant in Roane County was the site of the largest industrial spill in U.S. history when a pit containing millions of tons of coal ash gave way and flooded the surrounding area with a toxic slurry.

In the more than 13 years since the spill, more than 50 workers hired by TVA contractor Jacobs Engineering to clean up the spill have died from cancers, respiratory diseases and other ailments that appeared after the cleanup, while hundreds more have fallen ill. The workers and their families are currently suing Jacobs for damages.

On Wednesday, a federal appeals court ruled against Jacobs. Tennessee Lookout reporter Jamie Satterfield joined This Is Nashville guest host Nina Cardona on Monday to break down the ruling.

Nina Cardona: Let’s go back to 2008, which is when this all began. I remember the first reaction a lot of us had was just horror at seeing images of homes engulfed in a black ooze. That was the first time most of us had ever heard of coal ash. And we all asked a question at the time that I think is worth revisiting now, especially for the benefit of those who weren’t in Tennessee a dozen years ago, what is that sludge?

Jamie Satterfield: In 2008, if you had asked that question of the TVA, they would have told you that it was no more dangerous than dirt, that it was not radioactive, that its primary ingredient was something called silica. What we now know, thanks largely to investigative journalism, is that it is radioactive and it contains 26 dangerous heavy metals and toxins. So when this stuff went into the water and smothered the land, it represented a danger to everyone that lived out there, to the aquatic life and certainly to these workers.

NC: I understand you didn’t really start looking into (the coal ash spill) yourself until 2017 in a deep way. That’s when you were seeing a lawyer about something totally unrelated and ended up meeting a woman who was investigating how the workers hired to clean up the mess had been physically affected. What did she show you that day?

JS: When I walked up to the law office, she was standing outside. I didn’t know her, but the first thing she said to me was “People are dying and you need to do something about it.” She followed me into the office, and ultimately what she and the attorney began showing me were photos of these workers who were up to their eyeballs in this stuff, wearing nothing more than a reflective vest, a hard hat, a T-shirt and jeans. They started describing the health conditions that these workers were suffering.

NC: So, they were wearing none of the protective gear we might imagine — not a hazmat suit or anything like that?

JS: What I now know, based on on my journalism, is that in any kind of industrial accident workers are supposed to be outfitted with complete, full protection — respiratory and skin protection — until it is determined what’s in the substance, how threatening it is and that sort of thing. We now know that from the very beginning these workers were never provided the required gear, and then, this cleanup went on for years. So these workers were out there every day being exposed to a substance that emits radiation, and then, they were breathing in these radioactive particles.

NC: What did you do from there? Who did you talk to? 

JS: I asked them to give me a list of workers who did not know each other. I’ve been a cops reporter for a long time and learned a lot from homicide investigators. You don’t want your people cooking up stories. … At the heart of the (Kingston) site, there were 900 workers. … They gave me a list. And the first three I called, I was listening for these little tales. When people tell you the same thing, when they use the same language, you know they’re cooking it up. Well, these first three did not at all, so I felt comfortable that they were telling me what they believed to be true.

It was the fourth call though that really got me. It was a fellow named Craig Wilkinson, who at that time needed a double lung transplant after having worked out there. So I called him and told him who I was and that I was looking into it, and he hung up on me. I found that so strange. But about 20 minutes later, and I’ll just, I’ll never forget this call, because he called me back. He said that he had been at the moment that I’d called about to go out into his shed and kill himself because he did not want his wife to have to endure this anymore. But he said, “If you’ll truly investigate this and tell our story, I’ll hang on.” From that moment forward, I was hooked. I had to get to the bottom of this.

NC: How would you sum up the human toll of the cleanup effort? What are these people experiencing years after they finished touching that ash?

JS: I think the first impact is the deaths. So, workers that were in positions out there that were more exposed were perhaps not always in vehicles. They were flaggers, things like that, that were on the ground all the time. … Every time a truck would go by, it would blow into them.

What I learned about those families is that they were very traditional families. … It was mostly a male workforce. We do have some female workers who have died or are sick, but it’s mostly men. A lot of these women did not work outside the home. They enjoyed providing a home for their families. They had these long-term marriages. I myself am a widow. So when you lose your soulmate that you’ve known since high school and suddenly you’re going to have to fend for yourself because these are contract laborers that really didn’t have the benefits and such. So, the first impact was that you had a whole lot of women who were suddenly without any kind of income support. And then, of course, grief of losing this man that every day they sent off to work trusting that the TVA was keeping them safe.

So, a lot of these wives developed breast cancer. … These fellows were not told that this stuff was dangerous. So they would come home with it all over them, and the women would take the clothes and launder them. … So you have some of the wives that have suffered some cancers.

Then, with the workers who have been sick — when you breathe in radiation, it stays in your body. It does not come out, and they got increasingly sick. So when a worker would develop some kind of condition, he couldn’t work, and there went his benefits. There went the insurance. There went the family income. … A lot of these workers, when they get sick and they’re unable to work, they lose their insurance, so they don’t get any kind of medical care.

Until I uncovered the ingredient list— the real, true ingredient list and the levels of radioactive material — many of these workers really did not understand what it was that was causing their sicknesses. They did not, and still to this day, do not get appropriate medical testing and care. Many of them simply can’t afford it. Those who do have insurance have racked up astronomical bills, which is creating financial hardship.

NC: That’s why then there is the fight in the courts right now for financial damages. Now what is the significance of last week’s ruling that is denying the contractor, Jacobs Engineering, immunity in the case where they are suing for damages?

JS: There was a favorable verdict in 2018 for the workers … and Jacobs has been appealing issues ever since. This was the last ditch effort for them to try to get some way out of this. Judge Tom Varland has been presiding over this case since the beginning, and he very wisely allowed (Jacobs) an interim appeal to the Sixth Circuit to ask this final question, and that is about whether TVA would be immune. And if so, would Jacobs be immune? Now that the Sixth Circuit has sided with the workers, they asked and determined that neither TVA nor Jacobs can be immune for this behavior that’s alleged. It puts the workers very close now to go on to trial for damages.