Members of the newly formed Middle Nolichucky Watershed Alliance plan to participate in a Dec. 7 meeting to set total maximum pollutant loads for the Nolichucky River and its tributaries.

The meeting is to be held at the Limestone Ruritan Club, on Chuckey Ruritan Road, from 7 to 9 p.m., said Linda Modica, of the State of Franklin Sierra Club, a member of the alliance.

Greene County Commissioner Tim Armstrong, a dairy farmer who is chairman of the alliance, said he plans to attend, and urged a good turnout.

The Dec. 7 meeting is being held by the Johnson City office of the Tennessee Department of Environment & Conservation (TDEC).

John B. Jones, a watershed specialist with TVA who works with the Cherokee-Douglas watershed out of Morristown, said that setting total maximum pollutant loads was first mandated by the federal government in 1972, but was not done locally until in the last few years.

Polluted Streams Listed

Jones presented copies the 1998 version of the TDEC 303(d) list, showing streams that exceed water quality standards. Such streams are called “water quality limited,” according to TDEC terminology.

Nine listings in Greene County were included on the 1998 list, but only Lick Creek was noted as having “high priority” total maximum daily load (TMDL) figures.

The other Greene County streams were designated as having either low or moderate TMDL figures.

He said the meeting is “the most important meeting for the public” and that comments from the public will be sought.

Jones said the 303(d) list is updated every two years, and the update is likely to be presented at the Dec. 7 meeting.

However, Andrew Tolley, manager of the water pollution control section in the Johnson City TDEC office, which will be holding the meeting, said that the 303(d) list will not be updated in Tennessee this year. He said the 303(d) streams in the French Broad basin, including tributaries to the Nolichucky River, will be addressed at the meeting , but the list will not be the focus of the meeting.

Tolley said the purpose of the meeting will be to gather citizens’ comments about water pollution problems, and perhaps gather information about concerns that TDEC may not even be aware of at this time.

Alliance Background

The alliance was formed this summer, as an outgrowth of a meeting held by the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Appalachian Resource Conservation and Development Council, and the Univeristy of Tennessee’s Agricultural Extension Service.

Since its creation, the alliance has developed vision and mission statements and a number of short-term goals, and formed several committees.

The vision is: “to improve and protect all water resources in the middle of the Nolichucky watershed by involving people and organizations through public-private partnerships.”

The mission statement is: “Our mission is to educate and involve the community through establishing public-private partnerships to develop and implement action plans to preserve, protect and improve the watersheds in the middle Nolichucky watershed.”

Budget Approved

On Wednesday, alliance members heard committee reports and voted to accept the budget committee’s recomendation for how to spend $5,000 in TVA “seed money.” About 15 attended the meeting.

Modica reported that the group recommended spending “the lion’s share” of the seed money on education, focusing on educating adults, in line with the mission statement’s goals.

The committee allocated $1,000 for efforts related to land use and recreation work, $1,000 for efforts related to floodplain and pollution problems, $500 for efforts to affect legislation, and $500 for administrative and meeting expenses.

There had been some discussion about funding a luncheon for developers, but the committee thought the alliance should not pay for the lunch, only for coffee and snacks for meetings.

Modica said it is expected that printing costs may eventually take most of the available funds.

Rick Mowery of the Alltrista Zinc Products Co. plant reported on the education committee. He said the committee believes there is a great deal of information available for school-age children and may try to assemble some sort of list for teachers to use.

On the other hand, he said, there is much less information available for adults.

He said Realtors and building associations are two groups the education effort will probably focus on. He said the alliance may also want to report to the Greene County environmental coordinators group, which was formed through the efforts of Keep Greene Clean and its executive director, Susan Vance.

Members of the alliance may also want to address civic groups at some point, he said, with special emphasis on Ruritan clubs.

PR Efforts Needed

He also said the committee believes that additional public relations efforts are needed. To that end, he said, the group identified cleaning up the banks of a branch of Richland Creek from near EastView Elementary School to the YMCA in Greeneville as a project that would draw favorable attention to the alliance. The tentative target date for the cleanup is March 17.

Armstrong said he had spoken about the alliance at a meeting of the county’s vocational agriculture teachers two weeks ago, and the teachers were very receptive to the idea of high school students’ contributing to the alliance’s efforts.

Modica said that one idea that could be considered is bringing county commissioners or state legislators from North Carolina here to speak, so local political officials can get a better understanding of what is being done elsewhere.

Ken Chase, chairman of the Boone Watershed Partnership, represented the TVA at the meeting.