......This Just In!

We just got this today!!!

The TSRA, the Big South Fork, the Cumberland River and the citizens of Tennessee and Kentucky need your immediate help. In the last couple of days, I was made aware of a proposal to build a landfill on a tributary of the Big South Fork of the Cumberland. The landfill would be built on, or near, Bear Creek just outside of Oneida, TN in Scott County. Bear Creek flows northwest out of Oneida and meets the Big South Fork between Leatherwood Ford, and Blue Heron. At the bottom of the page, I have listed three links to the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation website, so you can view the proposals in their entirety.
I will list the highlights of the proposal below, so you can quickly see why we should oppose this landfill: The new landfill will fill in 0.82 acres of wetland.
The new landfill will fill in 1,417 linear feet (over a quarter of a mile) of a perennial stream. I assume this stream to be Bear Creek.

The landfill will accept the disposal of domestic wastes, commercial wastes, institutional wastes, municipal solid wastes, bulky wastes, landscaping and land clearing wastes, industrial wastes, construction/demolition wastes, farming wastes, shredded automotive tires, dead animals, and special wastes (see #4).
The landfill is also being considered as a disposal site for fly ash from the Tennessee Valley Authority coal ash spill in Kingston. The proposed landfill is only 57 miles straight up HWY 27 from Kingston.
See this article from the USA Today on Friday to see why there is a good chance the TVA will utilize it: http://content.usatoday.net/dist/custom/gci/InsidePage.aspx?cId=tennessean&sParam=32959265.storyI will spare you the legal arguments and scientific data and instead offer you plain common sense -Filling in a year round creek with waste is certainly something we should oppose. Filling that creek with the same toxic materials being removed from the Emory River is something the entire state should oppose. Fly ash contains arsenic, lead, and mercury along with other toxic heavy metals. Trash and toxic waste dumped into a tributary of the Big South Fork will certainly find its way downstream into the Cumberland River, where many communities, including Nashville get their drinking water. Please join me in opposing this landfill.

There is an opportunity for public comment at a hearing tomorrow:
Monday, March 8, 2010 in the Courtroom of Oneida City Hall, 19222 Alberta Street, Oneida, TN. From 5:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. EST, citizens are invited to inspect and discuss the permit application, draft permit, fact sheet, plans, and other materials with the DSWM and with representatives of the applicant. There will be an opportunity for public comments to be recorded or written and submitted from 5:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. The formal hearing will begin at 6:00 p.m. The DSWM will explain its tentative decision to issue the permit, after which the applicant's representative will describe the proposed facility. DSWM will then receive oral comments on the draft permit from the public.
If you cannot attend the hearing:
The public is also invited to submit comments in writing to: Mr. Mike Apple, Division of Solid Waste Management, 5th Floor, L&C Tower, 401 Church Street, Nashville, TN 37243-1535; telephone: 615-532-0780. Comments must be received by 4:30 p.m. CDT on Monday, April 5, 2010 to assure consideration. After considering all public comments, the DSWM Director will issue a final permit decision and a Response to Comments, which can be viewed at the Oneida Public Library or at the DSWM Field Office in Knoxville, Tennessee.
If you call, please identify yourself as a TSRA member, and tell them you oppose the Roberta Landfill in Oneida, TN.

Here are the links to the TDEC site:http://tn.gov/environment/wpc/ppo/arap/PH2009_024.pdf
http://www.tennessee.gov/environment/swm/ppo/roberta760281ph030810.pdf
http://www.state.tn.us/environment/swm/ppo/roberta760281.pdf

Please forward this email to anyone who would help in opposing this landfill.
Kind regards,
Trent Ganstine
President
Tennessee Scenic Rivers Association
tganstine@comcast.net
615.598.4190
Tennessee Scenic Rivers Association
P.O. Box 159041, Nashville, TN 37215-9041
www.paddletsra.org