September 3, 2025
Toxic Coal Ash in Tennessee: Addressing Coal Plants’ Hazardous Legacy
For many decades, utilities dumped billions of tons of coal ash — the toxic substance left after burning coal — in unlined ponds, landfills, and mines where the toxic pollution leaks into water and soil.
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Across the U.S., immense coal ash dumps are leaking hazardous chemicals including arsenic, chromium, lead, lithium, radium, and other heavy metals, which have been linked to numerous types of cancer, heart and thyroid disease, respiratory illness, reproductive failure, and neurological harm. In addition to those well-known health threats, in 2023, the Environmental Protection Agency acknowledged that coal ash contains levels of arsenic and radiation that pose cancer risks.
Coal ash remains one of our nation’s largest toxic industrial waste streams. U.S. coal plants continue to produce approximately 70 million tons every year. Coal ash is disproportionately located in low-income communities and communities of color.
Industry’s own data indicate that across the country almost all coal plants are polluting water above federal safe drinking water standards.
Despite regulations established a decade ago, the coal industry has failed to comply with federal safeguards and uses deceptive tactics to avoid cleaning up its coal ash.
Because of industry’s widespread violations of coal ash regulations, in 2023, the EPA ramped up enforcement after designating coal ash a national enforcement priority. The EPA reports that many plants are illegally closing coal ash ponds with toxic ash sitting in groundwater, threatening drinking water and the health of nearby residents.
The longer industry delays, the more toxic waste enters our water, and the more difficult cleanup becomes. But the coal industry is asking Trump’s EPA to let them off the hook.
Action Needed
Federal coal ash protections established in 2015 and 2024 require monitoring, closure, and cleanup of the more than 1,000 coal ash dumps across the country. Cleaning up coal ash now will not only prevent another billion-dollar catastrophic failure, it will preserve drinking water; protect rivers, streams, and lakes; and allow safe redevelopment of power plant sites.
The magnitude of harm from recklessly dumped toxic coal ash requires decisive action from federal and state regulators:
- Power companies must be required to comply with the law and immediately clean up their pollution, including removing any coal ash in contact with groundwater.
- When power companies retire coal plants, they must clean up their toxic mess and leave communities with sites that benefit rather than harm their health, environment, and economy.
- EPA and states must prohibit the use of coal ash as a substitute for clean soil in construction (known as structural fill), especially in residential areas, and ensure cleanup of areas where ash was used as fill.
Click on plant locations on the map to see industry reports
Coal Ash in Tennessee
| Allen Steam Plant | Tennessee Valley Authority | 1 pond(s), and 2 potential ash dump(s) | 2 potential ash dump(s) | 2,540,500 | Arsenic (x294), Boron (x4), Fluoride (x1), Lead (x3), Molybdenum (x9) | TN-09 (Steve Cohen) |
| Bull Run | Tennessee Valley Authority | 2 pond(s), 1 landfill(s), and 4 potential ash dump(s) | 4 potential ash dump(s) | 2,302,549 | Arsenic (x7), Boron (x9), Cobalt (x2), Lithium (x13), Molybdenum (x5), Sulfate (x3) | TN-03 (Charles J. Fleischmann) |
| Cumberland | Tennessee Valley Authority | 2 pond(s), 2 landfill(s), and 1 potential ash dump(s) | 1 potential ash dump(s) | 24,602,700 | Arsenic (x1), Boron (x22), Cobalt (x3), Lithium (x2), Molybdenum (x1), Sulfate (x3) | TN-07 (Mark Green) |
| Gallatin | Tennessee Valley Authority | 4 pond(s), 1 landfill(s) | None estimated | 13,048,500 | Arsenic (x2), Boron (x6), Cobalt (x2), Lithium (x41), Molybdenum (x2), Sulfate (x1) | TN-06 (John Rose) |
| John Sevier | Tennessee Valley Authority | 1 pond(s), and 9 potential ash dump(s) | 9 potential ash dump(s) | 660,892 | Lithium (x1) | TN-01 (Diana Harshbarger) |
| Johnsonville | Tennessee Valley Authority | 1 pond(s), and 5 potential ash dump(s) | 5 potential ash dump(s) | 4,916,800 | Boron (x4), Cobalt (x9), Sulfate (x1) | TN-07 (Mark Green) |
| Kingston | Tennessee Valley Authority | 2 pond(s), 1 landfill(s), and 3 potential ash dump(s) | 3 potential ash dump(s) | 4,735,100 | Arsenic (x16), Boron (x1), Cobalt (x20), Lithium (x10), Molybdenum (x5), Sulfate (x2) | TN-03 (Charles J. Fleischmann) |
| Watts Bar Fossil Plant | Tennessee Valley Authority | 3 legacy pond(s) | 3 legacy pond(s) | No data yet | No groundwater data reported | TN-04 (Scott DesJarlais) |
* Total volume of coal ash reported as of 2021 for ponds and landfills regulated under the 2015 Coal Ash Rule, and as of 2024 for legacy ponds at power plants that retired before October 2015. This volume does not include any of the potential ash dumps that will begin reporting in 2026.
** Parentheticals indicate magnitude of exceedance above federal health-based guidelines for drinking water based on industry data and analysis described in the report, Poisonous Coverup. See summaries of EPA reports.
Massive quantities of toxic coal ash are stored at eight coal-fired power plant sites in Tennessee.
All but one of these sites include older coal ash dumps that industry is only now beginning to quantify and monitor.
Power plant owners must report on an estimated 27 older coal ash dumps in Tennessee for the first time, under the safeguards established by the 2024 Legacy Coal Ash Rule. Those dump sites are in addition to 13 ponds (all of which have no protective liner to prevent leaks of hazardous chemicals) and five landfills that are covered by the 2015 Rule. These 18 ash dumps contain nearly 53 million cubic yards of toxic coal ash. That’s equivalent to a football field piled more than 4.5 miles high with coal ash.
At all seven of the Tennessee plants that have conducted groundwater monitoring to comply with the federal rule, industry data reveal groundwater contamination above federal safe drinking water standards.
Tennessee Valley Authority failed to report on any of their coal ash ponds at Watts Bar, in possible violation of the law. Earthjustice estimates that TVA may have three legacy coal ash ponds at the Watts Bar site.
For More Information
Christine Santillana, Senior Legislative Counsel, Earthjustice, csantillana@earthjustice.org
Lisa Evans, Senior Counsel, Earthjustice, levans@earthjustice.org.
About the Map
- EPA’s first coal ash regulations, issued in 2015, covered only some coal ash dumps, exempting older ponds and landfills at current and former coal plant sites.
- In 2024, EPA extended federal monitoring and cleanup requirements to hundreds of previously excluded older coal ash landfills and ponds leaking toxic pollution into groundwater and surface water. Industry is now required to monitor those older dump sites, filing initial reports on so-called ‘legacy’ ponds at former coal plants in 2024.
- In 2026, industry will be required to report on additional dump sites at operating power plants that did not receive ash after Oct. 19, 2015. Groundwater monitoring requirements are not yet in effect for these newly regulated dumps, so the table below may lack specific information about the number of units and the extent of contamination at a particular site.
More on Coal Ash in Tennessee
- Tennessee Valley Authority’s Toxic Coal Ash: Addressing Coal Plants’ Hazardous Legacy (May 3, 2023)
- Poisonous Coverup: The Widespread Failure of the Power Industry to Clean Up Coal Ash Dumps (November 3, 2022)
- Statement on Tennessee Valley Authority's Decision to Retire the Allen Fossil Plant (August 21, 2014)
- Five Years Later and the Story of the TVA Spill Continues (December 23, 2013)
- Judge Holds TVA Liable For Kingston Disaster (August 28, 2012)
- One Year Later, a Coal Ash Disaster Still Remains (December 21, 2009)
- TVA Gets Permission to Further Pollute Clinch River (November 12, 2009)
- Coal Ash Disaster Could Have Been Avoided (July 30, 2009)
Coal Ash in States, Territories, Regions
Puerto Rico (En Español)
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