Cleanup efforts continue in Tennessee to combat the largest coal ash spill in US history. The Tennessee Valley Authority now says 5.4 million cubic yards of toxic coal sludge spilled out of a coal plant retention pond last week, burying homes and roads. That is three times the size of the TVA’s initial estimate. The amount of ash released would fill 450,000 standard dump trucks. A TVA spokesperson said that tests show elevated levels of lead and thallium in water near the breach. The Environmental Protection Agency reported that “very high” levels of arsenic were found in a water sample collected from the affected area and that several heavy metals have also been found in quantities “slightly above drinking water standards.” The sludge has flowed into the Emory River, a tributary of the Tennessee River, which provides drinking water to millions of people downstream in Tennessee, Alabama and Kentucky.

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