Months after ash spill, Tennessee town still choking

A few hours before dawn on December 22, the walls of a dam holding back billions of gallons of coal ash waste trembled and, finally, crumbled. The waste, a toxic soup containing ash left over from burning coal, which is then mixed with water, was stored at the Tennessee Valley Authority coal power plant in neighboring Kingston, Tennessee.

On that cold morning, 1.1 billion gallons of coal ash sludge barreled through this community, covering 300 acres.

Sarah McCoin, who lives about a mile from the spill site, awoke to a community in shambles: homes and trees uprooted and a once-lush, green landscape turned to sludge.

"It makes you want to cry, knowing what has been lost," McCoin said. "I want my life back."

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/07/13/coal.ash.illnesses/index.html