Kingston coal ash spill of 2008
E661604
The Kingston coal ash spill of 2008 was a major environmental disaster in Tennessee in which a dike failure at a coal-fired power plant released millions of cubic yards of toxic coal ash into nearby rivers and land.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Kingston coal ash spill of 2008 canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T7410423 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Kingston coal ash spill of 2008 Context triple: [Kingston Fossil Plant, notableEvent, Kingston coal ash spill of 2008]
-
A.
Vanport flood of 1948
The Vanport flood of 1948 was a catastrophic Columbia River flood that destroyed the wartime housing city of Vanport, Oregon, killing at least 15 people and displacing tens of thousands, many of them Black shipyard workers and their families.
-
B.
The Great Flood of 1852
The Great Flood of 1852 was a catastrophic inundation of the Murrumbidgee River that devastated the Australian town of Gundagai, causing extensive loss of life and prompting the town’s relocation to higher ground.
-
C.
2008 Kosi flood
The 2008 Kosi flood was a catastrophic river flood in northern India and Nepal that displaced millions of people and caused widespread destruction when the Kosi River dramatically changed its course.
-
D.
Great Flood of 1879
The Great Flood of 1879 was a catastrophic inundation of the city of Szeged in Hungary that destroyed most of the town and prompted a major reconstruction.
-
E.
Black Saturday
Black Saturday is the Christian observance between Good Friday and Easter Sunday that commemorates Jesus Christ’s body lying in the tomb and his followers’ mourning and waiting.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Kingston coal ash spill of 2008 Target entity description: The Kingston coal ash spill of 2008 was a major environmental disaster in Tennessee in which a dike failure at a coal-fired power plant released millions of cubic yards of toxic coal ash into nearby rivers and land.
-
A.
Vanport flood of 1948
The Vanport flood of 1948 was a catastrophic Columbia River flood that destroyed the wartime housing city of Vanport, Oregon, killing at least 15 people and displacing tens of thousands, many of them Black shipyard workers and their families.
-
B.
The Great Flood of 1852
The Great Flood of 1852 was a catastrophic inundation of the Murrumbidgee River that devastated the Australian town of Gundagai, causing extensive loss of life and prompting the town’s relocation to higher ground.
-
C.
2008 Kosi flood
The 2008 Kosi flood was a catastrophic river flood in northern India and Nepal that displaced millions of people and caused widespread destruction when the Kosi River dramatically changed its course.
-
D.
Great Flood of 1879
The Great Flood of 1879 was a catastrophic inundation of the city of Szeged in Hungary that destroyed most of the town and prompted a major reconstruction.
-
E.
Black Saturday
Black Saturday is the Christian observance between Good Friday and Easter Sunday that commemorates Jesus Christ’s body lying in the tomb and his followers’ mourning and waiting.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (51)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
coal ash spill
ⓘ
environmental disaster ⓘ industrial accident ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs |
Kingston Fossil Plant coal ash spill
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
TVA Kingston coal ash spill NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| areaCovered | more than 300 acres ⓘ |
| cause |
dike failure
ⓘ
failure of coal ash containment pond ⓘ |
| cleanupLedBy | Tennessee Valley Authority NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| cleanupOversight |
Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| comparedTo | one of the largest coal ash spills in U.S. history ⓘ |
| containedAt | Kingston Fossil Plant coal ash storage pond NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| date | 2008-12-22 ⓘ |
| environmentalImpact |
destruction of aquatic habitat
ⓘ
fish kills ⓘ loss of wetlands ⓘ soil contamination ⓘ water pollution ⓘ |
| estimatedCleanupCost | over 1 billion U.S. dollars ⓘ |
| healthConcern |
arsenic contamination
ⓘ
lead contamination ⓘ mercury contamination ⓘ radioactive elements in coal ash ⓘ |
| impactedCommunity |
Harriman, Tennessee
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Kingston, Tennessee NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| impactedWaterBody |
Clinch River
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Emory River NERFINISHED ⓘ Watts Bar Reservoir NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| ledTo |
development of federal coal ash disposal regulations
ⓘ
increased scrutiny of coal ash storage practices in the United States ⓘ |
| legalOutcome |
lawsuits against Tennessee Valley Authority
ⓘ
settlements with affected residents ⓘ |
| locatedIn |
Kingston Fossil Plant
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Roane County, Tennessee NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| materialReleased |
bottom ash
ⓘ
coal ash slurry ⓘ coal combustion residuals ⓘ fly ash ⓘ |
| notableFor |
long-term cleanup effort
ⓘ
scale of coal ash release ⓘ |
| operatorOfPlant | Tennessee Valley Authority NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| ownedBy | Tennessee Valley Authority NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| plantType | coal-fired power plant ⓘ |
| preceded | Dan River coal ash spill of 2014 NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| regulator | U.S. Environmental Protection Agency NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| startDate | 2008-12-22 ⓘ |
| timeOfDay | early morning ⓘ |
| volumeReleased |
about 4 million cubic meters
ⓘ
about 5.4 million cubic yards ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Kingston coal ash spill of 2008 Description of subject: The Kingston coal ash spill of 2008 was a major environmental disaster in Tennessee in which a dike failure at a coal-fired power plant released millions of cubic yards of toxic coal ash into nearby rivers and land.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.