The Tennessee Valley Authority is shipping some of the 5.4 million cubic yards of coal ash sludge that spilled out of its retention pond at the Kingston TVA coal-fired power plant, polluting the Emery River and contaminating downstream, in Roane County last December to landfills in other states.
1,000 tons of dried sludge has been sent by train to Taylor County, east of Columbus, Georgia and another load has gone to Perry County, Alabama, between Tuscalossa and Montgomery.
. . . all that contaminated coal ash from the Tennessee spill now headed to other states will be subject to standards that are weaker than those of the typical landfill handling house-hold waste.