Sunday, 05/20/07

Wounded river will not soon heal

FRANKLIN — It's not a pretty picture.

Decaying trees, twigs and trash caught between abutments supporting a bridge along Highway 96 have formed a jam in the Harpeth River.

Just around the bend, below Fort Granger, four tubular floating booms absorb chemicals that leaked from tanks at a paint factory. Downstream, an orange liquid seeps into the water near an assortment of rusting cars, refrigerators and metal that line the bank.

These are the problems that can be seen clearly in a five-mile stretch of the Harpeth River as it winds through downtown Franklin. Roughly 44 miles of the Harpeth in Williamson County and 203 creek miles flowing into the river are impaired, according to the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.

The streams suffer from low oxygen levels, poisonous bacteria, loss of aquatic habitat and too much dirt. The list of pollutant sources ranges from grazing cattle and highway runoff to treated sewage.

State officials aren't forecasting improvements for the river. Considering that it's in a county consistently gaining rooftops, parking lots and people, the Harpeth River likely won't be pulled off the state's list of impaired waterways anytime soon.

"We don't see that in the immediate future," said Joe Holland, manager of the Division of Water Pollution Control's Nashville field office. "There's a lot of pressure on the river from land development. There's a significant amount of treated wastewater being discharged into it. All that is putting stress on the river, making it hard to correct what's happened."

Erosion strains river

During a recent canoe trip, one of the river's biggest advocates pulled a tiny turtle from the water. Dorie Bolze, executive director of the Harpeth River Watershed Association, squealed when she saw a red-eared slider swimming past her toes.

"My favorite, favorite thing is turtles… turtles, snakes… I like reptiles," Bolze said, holding the small creature in the palm of her hand. "He's a sweetie. He's too much. Unfortunately, he's herring food. He's too little to be out here."

After putting the turtle back in the water, Bolze scooped up a handful of rocks from a shallow section of the river. A fine, powder-like coating of dirt dripped from her hands.

"A lot of the space between these rocks is filled in with fine mud, which means you don't have as much habitat for the aquatic insects," Bolze said. "They live in the spaces between all these rocks, and it's all filled in. See how it's got a nice, fine sheen of dirt on it? So that's what's happening when you have a lot of erosion."

The No. 1 pollutant in the state is dirt from eroding stream banks and disturbed land. While a certain amount of erosion is natural, most of what is negatively impacting the Harpeth River comes from building and changes to the land.

When paved surfaces and rooftops replace forested areas or patches of grass, rainwater can't seep into the ground. Instead, it's forced to find a path to the river and can carry along dirt, oil, fertilizers and other forms of pollution. One of the association's biggest goals is getting builders, planners and government officials to tighten requirements to allow stormwater to seep into the ground instead of rushing into the river.

New threats emerge

Amid the rusting cars and eroding stream banks, river advocates say two new threats — a chemical spill and a new, larger city water plant — could worsen the river's condition.

Members of the Harpeth River Watershed Association fear that leaking industrial chemicals, which the paint-making plant Egyptian Lacquer Manufacturing Co. has taken responsibility for, could cause fish-kills this summer during low flow periods if a more active cleanup is not launched.

After months of investigation and cleanup, they want the state to demonstrate that the cleanup is being done according to federal guidelines and create a more aggressive plan for removing the chemicals underground and to stop them from leaking into Liberty Creek and the Harpeth River. The state maintains that federal standards are being followed.

"I wonder where things would be if we weren't following up all the time," said Pam Davee, the group's policy specialist.

State officials say they are acting as quickly as they can to remove the chemicals that were first discovered in January and are still leaking as of May.

Harpeth River advocates and residents believe the cleanup process should have been better handled and more information communicated to residents who live near the plant.

"Other than the media, I've gotten the biggest portion of my information from the Harpeth River Watershed," said Denise Danley, a resident on Daniels Drive near the paint plant.

Water balance shifts

Meantime, the association has squared off against Franklin officials who want to build a new, larger water treatment plant capable of pulling more water from the river.

Bolze has urged city officials to buy more of the city's water from the Harpeth Valley Utility District, which draws from the Cumberland River and supplies much of the water used by Williamson County municipalities.

A final determination from state officials on building the new water plant has yet to be made.

Franklin officials want TDEC's approval for what's known as an "Aquatic Resource Alteration Permit," which would apply to a new water plant that could pull up to 4.5 million gallons of water from the river a day. The current plant can only pull 2.6 million gallons of water a day, but there are no state restrictions on the amount of water that can be drawn.

The association is equally concerned with what is going into the river.

There are three sewage treatment plants located along the river. The largest is the city of Franklin's sewage plant, which has a discharge point near Spencer Creek and Franklin High School. If needed, the plant could, under current permits, dump more effluent into the river. Bolze said that could lead to lower oxygen levels and could kill aquatic life.

As more subdivisions are being built in and around Franklin, more homes will hook up to the city's sewer system. Bolze calls the treated effluent from sewer plants "fertilizer slurry" and says it raises nitrogen levels in the river.

"Simply put, there is not enough water in the river to dilute the current and projected levels of sewage effluent and continue to withdraw from the drinking water plant," Bolze said. "There's only so much nitrogen a river can have before you have algae blooms and fish kills."

Algae blooms are typically associated with increased toxicity in water.

Joe Holland said TDEC would not allow any increase in the pollutant level of the river. He said if sewage plants want to dump more water in the Harpeth, the effluent put into the river would have to be treated to a higher standard so that it's free of nutrients that lead to low oxygen levels.

TDEC initiates study

While an old dump in downtown Franklin looks bad, the association isn't making it an immediate cleanup priority. Cars at the dump have fallen into the bank. Many are held in place by trees, tall grass or clumps of dirt. Bolze believes that the orange liquid coming from under the dump could be rusty, iron-rich water. She said it looks bad, but it's not killing the river.

The HRWA wants the dump to be capped, or sealed with layers of soil and rock, so that toxic liquids couldn't get into the river. She's hoping the city of Franklin will address this if the dump is ever incorporated into plans for a riverfront park.

Joe Holland said TDEC is in the first year of a five-year assessment cycle of the Harpeth River Watershed, which includes all streams that flow into the Harpeth. The state is taking samples of various streams and will adjust permits that regulate construction, sewage discharge and water withdraws.

"Some of the pollutants we can't deal with directly in the permits," Holland said. "We have to identify a plan and work with other agencies to address those."

Tennessean.com and its related sites are pleased to be able to offer its users the opportunity to make comments and hold conversations online. However, the interactive nature of the Internet makes it impracticable for our staff to monitor each and every posting. Since Tennessean.com does not control user submitted statements, we cannot promise that readers will not occasionally find offensive or inaccurate comments posted on our Web site. In addition, we remind anyone interested in making an online comment that responsibility for statements posted lies with the person submitting the comment, not Tennessean.com or its related sites. All comments posted should comply with the Tennessean.com's terms of service Post a Comment   View All Comments DE-SUCK the Harpeth at Franklin! Don't pipe this river dry when the Cumberland is right there with water aplenty. Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 8:30 am Dorie and Pam of HRWA are two of the greatest women and citizens I have ever known. I so appreciate their intelligence, determination, and willingness to fight for our Harpeth River. We are so proud of you! Posted: Sun May 20, 2007 8:46 am Post a Comment   View All Comments