TVA IG Report on Kingston Makes for Great Reading

The TVA Inspector General's report on the Kingston Coal Ash Spill is, to put it nicely, harshly critical of the utility's (mis)handling of its waste and its management's lack of transparency in the matter. Here's a highlight addressing TVA's post-spill behavior:

TVA's Dilemma:  Accountability or Litigation Strategy? 
TVA had a clear but difficult choice to make in the aftermath of the 
Kingston Spill.  One choice was to conduct a diligent review of TVA 
management practices as well as to conduct a technical physical 
examination of the failed structure and then to publish whatever was 
discovered to the world.  The second choice was to "circle the wagons," 
carefully craft press releases to project TVA in the most favorable light, 
and to tightly control any reports done by TVA of the failure to minimize 
legal liability.  The first choice required a value judgment that a 
government agency causing a major disaster affecting the lives and 
property of citizens around the Kingston Fossil Fuel Plant should err on 
the side of transparency and accountability.  The downside to this choice 
is providing fodder for plaintiffs in litigation against TVA and bringing 
perhaps additional scrutiny on the agency.

The second choice also required a value judgment.  That choice placed a 

premium on the preservation of TVA assets and the protection of an 

image of environmental stewardship.  The advantage of this choice was 

limiting legal liability which arguably inures to the benefit of ratepayers and 

avoiding scrutiny of TVA management practices that might have 

contributed to the Kingston Spill.  

 

We are not privy to the calculation made by TVA as to the relative merits 

of these two difficult choices.  We are, however, privy to facts that suggest 

a predictable outcome from TVA electing to go with the second choice. 

And here's one that people in Roane County may be interested in:

TVA COULD HAVE POSSIBLY PREVENTED THE KINGSTON SPILL IF 

We interviewed plant personnel, engineering personnel, and management and heard several comments indicative of a culture resistant to treating ash management as 
much more than taking out the garbage.  For example: 

• One member of management stated, "Ponds have always been the 

back end of the plant.  It is the same way at other utilities," indicating 

that ponds are not an area of primary focus for utilities.

• Another employee said, "The further away from the plant you got the 

less management seemed to care," conveying the ponds got little 

attention because they were away from the plant and not directly 

related to power production. 

 

• A TVA engineer said TVA had always stacked ash higher at KIF so it 

must be okay.  He went on to say that if something worked in the past, 

TVA will keep on doing it and that TVA had a cheap solution to ash 

storage by stacking higher so that is what they did. 

There's a lot more in the report, and it goes way beyond Kingston. TVA IG and contracted inspectors from  Marshall Miller and Associates visited seven TVA plants (Bull Run Fossil 

Plant, Cumberland Fossil Plant, Johnsonville Fossil Plant, John Sevier Fossil Plant, Kingston 

Fossil Plant, Paradise Fossil Plant, and Widows Creek Fossil Plant)  and found poorly maintained ash ponds, poor training (or none at all) for pond management personnel, and engineering and design standards that haven't been updated SINCE 1981.