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and this isn't a pretty sight.
HARRIMAN - Workers face "several weeks' worth of work" to clean up 2.6 million cubic yards of fly ash dumped across hundreds of acres after a retention pond collapsed early Monday morning at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston steam plant.
No injuries have been reported, but one house was swept off of its foundation and onto the road, and huge piles of a mixture of water, mud and ash covered Swan Pond Road in Roane County.
Officials say up to 400 acres of land adjacent to the plant are under 4 to 6 feet of material. An initial estimate projected that 2.6 million cubic yards of fly ash were released, said Laura Niles, an Environmental Protection Agency spokeswoman in Atlanta.
This sludge can be, and more than likely is highly toxic. This area will be toast for a very long time after the clean-up.
The 40-acre pond was used by TVA as a containment area for ash generated by the coal-burning steam plant, Francis said. An earthen wall gave way just before 1 a.m., flooding the road and railroad tracks leading to the plant.
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