Matlock Bend no longer a candidate for TVA ash
knoxnews.com

LENOIR CITY - The Loudon County Solid Waste Commission won't be voting on whether or not to accept coal fly ash from the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston fly ash spill.

In a press release issued Tuesday afternoon by Santek Environmental, the company managing the landfill, said TVA's disposal options no longer include the Matlock Bend Landfill.

The landifill is one of four in Tennessee given approval to accept test runs of up to 10 truckloads of sludge from the Dec. 22 spill that dumped 5.4 million cubic yards of fly ash into the Emory River and surrounding countryside. A landfill in Alabama has been approved to receive train shipments.

Santek's statement said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency added requirements and restrictions to TVA's initial proposal.

"We regret that the community was unnecessarily alarmed by this misinformation," the statement concluded.

A spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, however, said EPA officials crossed Matlock Bend off the list after a monthly inspection on July 10.

"We found some issues of non-compliance," TDEC's Tisha Calabrese-Benton said.

Calabrese-Benton said the inspection disclosed leeching and waste that wasn't confined to a manageable area.

The Loudon Solid Waste Commission met Tuesday night at the Courthouse Annex in Loudon to hear public comments on the issue and had planned on voting on the matter during the session.