Root Cause Analysis of TVA Kingston Dredge Pond Failure on December 22, 2008

TVA contracted with AECOM, one of the nation’s leading geo-technical engineering firms, in January to perform the very detailed root cause analysis to determine the cause of the ash spill at the Kingston Fossil Plant. The findings and analysis were part of a comprehensive six-month report made public today by AECOM. The root cause, as reported by AECOM, is a very complex set of conditions that came together to cause the ash spill. This is not a simple report or summary because what happened was not a simple thing. A combination of the high water content of the wet ash, the increasing height of ash, the construction of the sloping dikes over the wet ash, and the existence of an unusual bottom layer of ash and silt were among the long-evolving conditions that caused the ash spill at Kingston Fossil Plant on Dec. 22, 2008.
Contents: Volume I – Summary Report; Volume II – Geological and Field Explorations; Volume III – Laboratory Testing and Results; Volume IV – Seepage and Stability Analyses;