ROANE COUNTY, Tenn. (WVLT) – The Kingston City Council called a special meeting Thursday evening to discuss several aspects of the December 22nd Kingston Fossil Plant ash spill.

Some members of the council said they were worried the council wasn’t being vocal enough about the situation. At the meeting, they discussed evidence that that coal ash is spreading across the bottom of the Emory and Clinch Rivers.

With spreading coal ash has come the fear of rising selenium levels.

Selenium is a mineral that frequently shows in trace amounts in water. Testing on water and fish near the ash spill site has picked up very low, safe levels of the element. In spite of the clean bill of health from the environmental agencies, some worry the levels are just right to have a serious impact on the ecosystem.

"The flesh is testing alright for human consumption right now,” said Brant Williams, a Kingston City Councilman. “The problem is that selenium will act almost like a birth control for the fish and other wildlife by stopping production. We might start seeing a decline over the years in our fish population, and Kingston and Watts Bar Lake are famous for our fishing."

Another bone of contention for the city is a new gypsum retention pond that is under construction at the Kingston Fossil Plant. The pond will be used to store gypsum collected by scrubbers on the plant’s smokestacks. The TVA plans to line the pond with clay, but councilman want them to use an impermeable liner made of composite plastics, which they feel is safer.