If our gubernatorial candidates need more mud to sling, I can recommend a source: the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT). The state agency is slinging plenty of the stuff into the streams of southwest Williamson County near its state Route 840 construction site.
The construction site lies where 840 will cross Pinewood Road between Highway 100 and Bending Chestnut Road. It is as pretty a rural Tennessee setting as you’re likely to find. Last Friday, after that morning’s rain, I found water with the color and transparency of a Starbucks Frappuccino in Locke Branch, White Oak and Kelley creeks—which ultimately feed the Duck and Harpeth rivers. In contrast was the Evian-like clarity of streams outside the construction zone. At the point where these unimpacted tributaries flowed into streams below 840-in-the-making, the line between clear and muddy waters was as definite as if drawn with a stylus.
The problem is not that the streams muddied by 840 will run mocha forever. The influx from clean tributaries not impacted by the roadway will dilute the construction runoff. And because particles of silt are heavier than water, they will sink. But there’s the rub. If erosion is not controlled, more and more layers of sediment will lie in the stream beds. This silt will smother bottom-dwelling organisms, such as larva and worms, on which all life above depends. Frogs and fish and waterfowl won’t have anything to eat. And there goes the aquatic neighborhood.
State Route 840 is a nearly 200-mile ring road that is to encircle Nashville. The southern half is nearly complete; the northern half has not yet begun. TDOT and Vaughn Contractors, the firm building this segment of 840, have been cited several times for their lack of erosion control at the site. The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) issued a “notice of non-compliance” with state water pollution rules to TDOT on Sept. 3. The notice states that inspectors had found sediment in a tributary of Locke Branch Creek, and “that erosion and sediment control measures that had been installed did not appear to be adequate.” The notice directed TDOT and Vaughn “to install and maintain the controls to prevent further releases of sediment from the construction site.”
“Further releases of sediment” showed up after rains later in September. In response, TDEC issued a more severe “notice of violation” to TDOT and Vaughn on Sept. 30 for the pollution of several tributaries near the construction site. And on Oct. 1, TDEC water pollution control director Paul Davis fined Vaughn $15,000 for failure to control erosion from a pile of dirt adjacent to the construction site.
In 1998, before 840 began to plant its dirty feet on the Kelley Creek watershed, the Nature Conservancy rated this watershed as a “world class” ecosystem. The Conservancy study identified over 370 species of plants and 32 species of fish in the watershed, some of them globally rare. “The outstanding plant and animal diversity encompassed by the watershed, coupled with the high water quality of the system, are unparalleled in the region,” the study concluded.
Paul Degges, TDOT’s director for the Middle Tennessee region, says that his department funded the Nature Conservancy study and modified its pollution control plan for the watershed in response to its findings. He insists that “we’re trying to do everything we can” to protect the water quality of all the streams 840 will pass by. Degges points out, however, the imprecision in Tennessee’s environmental laws with regard to sediment as a water pollutant. “The technology does not exist to stop 100 percent of sediment from escaping from a construction site,” he says. “And state law says you can’t cause harm, but there are no numerical standards for how much particle matter causes harm to a waterway. TDEC decides if harm has been caused. So we keep asking TDEC, how good is good enough?”
TDEC’s Paul Davis agrees that there are no numerical standards for the amount of silt permitted. “We’ve learned from other segments [of 840], such as the portion between Thompson’s Station and Highway 106, that if erosion control is done properly, you don’t have to choose between clean water and developing a transportation system. You can have both.”
The pollution problems in the southwest quadrant of 840 are just the latest in the wrangles over the controversial ring road. In 2000, the SouthWest Williamson County Community Association (SWWCCA) and the Heritage Foundation filed suit in Williamson County chancery court to stop construction of 17 miles of the road until TDOT conducted a detailed environmental impact study. Judge Russell Heldman agreed with the plaintiffs and halted construction. His decision was later reversed by the Tennessee court of appeals on the grounds that the suit should have been brought in Davidson County, because that’s where TDOT is headquartered.
This September, federal judge Todd Campbell halted construction of 840 over streams in the South Harpeth River watershed. Campbell ordered the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to further assess the impact of construction on streams before allowing construction to proceed.
TDOT’s ways of doing business have recently emerged as an issue in the gubernatorial race. Last week candidate Phil Bredesen attacked TDOT’s “arrogance and abuse of power,” which he said had led to wasted tax dollars and pollution. Bredesen pointed to a $3 million cash penalty and environmental cleanup levied by TDEC against TDOT in 2000 for violating the Tennessee Waste Disposal Act, the Tennessee Hazardous Waste Act and the Water Quality Control Act.
“I’ve never been as discouraged as I am right now,” says Gene Cotton, founder of SWWCCA. “Two years ago we stood in court and warned that the watershed would be polluted if construction wasn’t done properly. And TDOT said, 'Trust us. We know how to build roads.’ And now, as soon as it rains, there’s all this mud.”
After my hike through the dirty waters, I drove toward Leiper’s Fork in search of a Puckett’s cheeseburger. I noticed a Great Blue heron wading in a stream near the road. Big bird, better fish while you can, I thought. Pretty soon, you could be on a diet.
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