Jacobs Engineering settles Kingston coal ash case

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Jacobs Engineering settles Kingston coal ash case

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One-line statement on firm’s site affirming the settlement with more than 200 workers in litigation over clean-up operation

BY: JAMIE SATTERFIELD, TENNESEE LOOKOUT - MAY 23, 2023

EXCERPT: "After 10 years of litigation, workers who were forced to work without personal protection to clean up the Tennessee Valley Authority’s massive coal ash spill at its Kingston Fossil Plant in 2008 have reached a settlement in the case.

TVA’s disaster clean-up contractor Jacobs Engineering posted a one-line notice Monday on its website affirming that the global corporation has reached a monetary settlement with the more than 200 workers who filed suit over their treatment.

No notice of settlement has yet been filed in U.S. District Court, so the details of the deal remain unclear. Workers have rejected at least three prior settlement offers including an offer in late 2021 by Jacobs of $35 million. . . . .

Testimony in the 2018 federal trial revealed that managers with both Jacobs and TVA repeatedly told workers coal ash was safe enough to eat and refused to provide them protective gear, including masks. When workers began pressing for respiratory protection, Jacobs’ safety manager Tom Bock ordered masks stored at the disaster site destroyed to prevent workers from wearing them, testimony showed.

Coal ash contains 26 cancer-causing toxins, heavy metals and radioactive material, including radium, lithium, selenium, molybdenum, arsenic, lead, cobalt and uranium. Initial testing in January 2009 by an independent firm showed the Kingston coal ash was six to eight times more radioactive than surrounding soil. . . . . "

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