About $42 million has been recovered in the last week by the Tennessee Valley Authority to help pay for more than $1 billion in expenses stemming from the cleanup at the 2008 ash spill at the Kingston Fossil Plant.
The latest payment comes after an arbitrator ruled that one of TVAs insurers, Bermuda-based Arch, had to pay for part of the cleanup expenses from the collapse of a coal ash pond where TVA dumped coal residues for decades at its Kingston plant.The arbitration award is the first of three pending cases between TVA and its insurers over the Kingston ash spill. The Chattanooga Times Free Press reported that TVA now has collected $92 million from property and casualty insurance companies, and the agency could receive up to $200 million more, depending upon the outcome of pending arbitration cases. TVA spokesman Duncan Mansfield said TVA is seeking the policy limits of $150 million from ACE Bermuda and another $50 million from Zurich insurance. Even if successful, TVA still will get back only about a fourth of what the utility expects to spend to repair and clean up the river and surrounding property damaged when an ash dike ruptured at an 84-acre solid waste containment area in Roane County, Tenn., three days before Christmas in 2008.