of radium,” said Scott Brooks, a T.V.A.
spokesman. “Coal ash is not considered
a hazardous waste by the E.P.A., and is
handled and stored as such.” T.V.A. has
also defended its ongoing relationship
with Jacobs. In February, the Knoxville
News Sentinel revealed that T.V.A. had
reached an agreement with Jacobs to help
cover damages from the workers’ lawsuit,
depending on the trial’s outcome, and
would pass on the cost to its customers.
T.V.A. falls partially under the juris-
diction of the House Transportation and
Infrastructure Committee. In an email,
Representative Peter DeFazio, who was
elected committee chairman in 2019,
promised to inquire further into T.V.A.’s
handling of the Kingston cleanup, with a
hearing scheduled for September. “We are
committed to holding T.V.A. accountable,
especially as it concerns worker and public
safety,” he said. “We will not hesitate to
press for answers just as our Committee
did in the months immediately following
the 2008 coal ash spill, which helped spur
reforms in how T.V.A. handles its coal ash.”
The Kingston cleanup had cost T.V.A.
a billion dollars. Scott’s team estimates
that, should a jury rule in the workers’
favor, it could cost Jacobs and T.V.A.
$3 billion more. Scott’s team declined to
comment on the cut that it would take, but
contingency fees typically range from 30
to 40 percent in cases of this nature. And
more lawsuits seem inevitable. In April,
the Supreme Court ruled against T.V.A.
in a separate case. In 2013, a f isherman
had been killed, and nearly decapitated,
when the boat he was riding in collided
with a power line that T.V.A. workers were
raising from the bottom of the Tennes-
see River. The court’s decision stripped
T.V.A. of automatic sovereign immunity.
The ruling, Scott said, “is gigantic for the
next two to three decades.”
For now, though, Janie and Ansol Clark
know that, with Jacobs sure to contest the
outcome of the next trial, any hope of justice
is likely years away. And should it come, it’ll
hardly suff ice for the damage that Jacobs
and T.V.A. have wreaked on their lives. In
March, for their anniversary, rather than
go out to eat, Janie cooked Ansol’s favor-
ite meal—fried chicken, gravy, mashed
potatoes, biscuits, green beans. “I may
not have another anniversary with him,”
she said. “I’ve been honored to be married
to this man for 47 years. I don’t know any
other life. Everything I remember, he’s
been here with me by my side.” Coal ash
had taken much from her and Clark, but
at least it couldn’t take that. MJobstructive lung disease, and mild brain
damage. He’s one of the fortunate ones to
have health insurance; some 40 percent
of the plaintiffs don’t. But Brewer worries
that, should his health decline further,
he could be f ired from his current job, at
Holland Freight, and lose coverage.
Standing at the edge of the soccer
f ields, Scott addressed the crowd. He
recounted how the workers had stepped
up in the face of disaster, to the benef it of
the community. “That’s a great American
story,” he said. He expressed remorse for
the way it had ended.
Since the spill, operations at the Kings-
ton plant have remained largely unchanged.
In 2015, the E.P.A. introduced new rules
on how coal ash must be stored, reacting,
in part, to the Kingston disaster. In doing
so, the agency also conf irmed 157 cases
in which leaky coal-ash sites had harmed
or potentially harmed human health. But
in July 2018, the E.P.A., now under the
Trump administration, rolled back partsof these regulations, which would have
required power plants to monitor and
line leaking coal-ash ponds.
Scott has spent the months following
the December ceremony preparing for the
next phase of trial, which will likely com-
mence in early 2020. To litigate it, Jacobs
hired the attorney Theodore Boutrous,
who has defended Apple, CNN, Uber, and
Walmart. “There has been no f inding of
liability in these cases or that any of the
alleged injuries are the result of exposure
to coal ash, let alone caused by anything
Jacobs did,” Boutrous wrote in an email.
“Jacobs strongly believes that when all
t he ev idence is presented, it w ill v indicate
Jacobs’ stellar reputation for safety.”
T.V.A. has similarly admitted no
wrongdoing. It contends that the coal ash
did not pose health concerns, according
to experts, and that it was transparent
throughout the cleanup process. “T.V.A.
has acknowledged the constituents in coal
ash for decades, including trace amountswhen they returned to the courthouse
the following day, Keith Stewart, for one,
wore a sickened look.
Shortly before noon, the jury returned
with its decision. To reach a verdict, the
jurors had to check “yes” or “no” to 12
questions, accepting or rejecting whether
Jacobs’ actions could have possibly sickened
the workers with leukemia, lung cancer,
and coronary artery disease, among other
illnesses. Both parties stood for the verdict.
For Scott, all sound fell away, just as the
cheering crowds had when he played high-
school football. As a courtroom deputy
took the verdict form, Scott could feel the
workers sitting behind him in the gallery.
He thought of Ansol and Janie Clark and
all the workers who’d sat through the trial,
and he thought of those who hadn’t, like
Mike Shelton, three years dead.
Twelve “yes” replies in a row.
Scott clenched a f ist. A tear formed in
his eye as Friedman hugged him. In the
gallery, some of the workers quietly sobbed.
The Clarks, unsure of when the jury
would return, had missed the reading of
the verdict, but they were following the
news at home. When Janie learned the
results, she ran into the living room, where
Clark was sitting in his armchair. “I was
screaming,” she said. “I was jumping up
and down like a cheerleader.” Clark joked
t hat he turned f lips. “We’ve seen t he best
of humanity and the worst of humanity,”
Janie said. They had hung on, she said,
because Scott had given them a reason to.PART VI—THE WAIT
On December 22, 2018, ten years to the
day since the Kingston disaster, 200
people, many of whom had assisted in the
cleanup, including Ansol Clark, gathered
at soccer f ields that now occupy part of
the former spill site. A day earlier, Clark
had planted a white cross in the ground
near the entrance, bearing the words
“First Responders Gave All.” Janie snapped
photos. “To T.V.A. and Jacobs, these men’s
lives were not worth even one penny—just
expendable,” she said later.
Though Scott’s team had won the f irst
trial phase, the workers would have to wait
until the second was decided to receive
damages. At least two truck drivers in
attendance that day had matching sores
on their faces that they attributed to coal
ash. Many other former workers coughed or
limped. Jeff Brewer, the part-time preacher,
was among them. “What they’ve done to us,
it angers me,” he told me, pointing toward
the Kingston plant, a half mile away. He
now has hypertension, low testosterone,078
“I DON’T KNOW WHO I
AM WITHOUT HIM.
I NEVER DREAMED I’D BE
HERE LEFT ALONE.”
078