The spill covered surrounding land with up to six feet ( 1.8 m ) of sludge . Although the land surrounding the power plant is largely rural rather than residential , the spill caused a mudflow wave of water and ash that covered 12 homes , pushing one entirely off its foundation , rendering three uninhabitable , and caused some damage to 42 residential properties . It also washed out a road , ruptured a major gas line , obstructed a rail line , preventing a train delivering coal from reaching the plant , downed trees , broke a water main , and destroyed power lines . Though 22 residences were evacuated , nobody was reported to be injured or in need of hospitalization . It was the largest coal-related slurry spill in United States history , more than three times the size of the Martin County sludge spill of 2000 , which spilled of liquid coal waste . The of sludge were enough to fill 1,660 Olympic-size swimming pools , and the volume released was about 101 times larger than the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill . On December 23 , 2008 , a TVA spokesman , Gil Francis Jr. , stated that , at the time of the spill , the area contained about 2.6 million cubic yards ( 2.2 million m ³ ) of ash , and that two-thirds of that had been released , which would later be found to cover an area of . '' The New York Times '' noted that the amount spilled was larger than the amount stated to have been in the pond before the spill , a discrepancy the TVA was unable to explain . The containment area affected was one of three ; the other two stayed intact , while only the retaining wall for the solid waste containment area was affected
Exxon Valdez oil spill
Exxon Valdez oil spill
Kingston Fossil Plant coal fly ash slurry spill