The Middle Nolichucky Watershed Alliance's board voted Thursday to purchase testing equipment to be used for monitoring local streams and the river itself.

Wilhelmina Williams, the Alliance's chairman, said that 10 people expressed interest in doing stream monitoring on a voluntary basis, when the group staffed a booth at the recent Greene County Farm & Garden Expo.

Cathy Landy, monitoring coordinator for the Alliance's "Adopt-A-Stream" program, said a training program originally scheduled for late November had been postponed, in part because the test kits would not be available.

Williams said she would "hate to lose momentum," since interest has been expressed about stream monitoring. She noted that the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency has promised a $1,000 grant for the test kits, the second time such a grant has been given to the Alliance.

The second grant has not yet been received, Williams said, but she noted that the Alliance has enough money on hand to cover the purchase.

Dana Vaughn, a watershed specialist with the Tennessee Valley Authority, said the ideal way to do monitoring would be to divide the river and streams that feed into it into half-mile sections, with two testing sites per half-mile.

After discussion, Vaughn made a motion to use money on hand to purchase the test kits, on the assumption that the TWRA grant will replace that money when it is received. Approval was unanimous.

Williams reminded members of a public meeting on Monday, Oct. 20, scheduled by the Tennessee Department of Environment & Conservation (TDEC) at the Limestone Ruritan Club building in Limestone. The MNWA is a co-sponsor of the meeting, which will focus on the Nolichucky River Water Quality Management Plan.

Williams said the club will have a presence at the meeting and distribute information, but will not use its large display.

Williams noted that Vaughn has accepted a new job within TVA, and will not be able to facilitate the Alliance in that post.

Vaughn introduced her replacement, Watershed Specialist Mark Odom. Later in the meeting, Odom agreed to serve as secretary of the group, and was elected.

Williams thanked Vaughn for her years of service, first as director of the former Cedar Creek Learning Center, later as a private citizen, and most recently with TVA.

Vaughn's new job will be to replace Chris Cooper, who most recently has worked as a land manager for TVA property along waterways including the Nolichucky.

Kate Agmann, who owns property along the Nolichucky River, said a follow-up meeting for property owners was to have been scheduled this fall.

Many property owners were surprised to learn this summer that TVA owns several parcels of land directly along the river, and has long-term plans to create more public access points on that land. Williams pointed out that this came as a surprise to many who own land along the river and were not aware of TVA's longtime holdings.

Vaughn said one reason that the follow-up meeting has not been held may be that the number of people on the team working on land use has been reduced from 22 to 11.

She said she would definitely contact Agmann and the MNWA when a meeting is scheduled. Williams said the MNWA's goal will be to try to keep all of the interested parties "connected" and working toward a resolution.

Randy Cutler, executive director of a newly-formed group called Smallmouth Unlimited, spoke to the group. Cutler said the month-old group is "based on the premise of helping the smallmouth bass and the habitat that they live in."

Cutler said the Nolichucky River, along with the French Broad and the Holston, are "the most famous places" in the U.S. for smallmouth bass fishing, and the Nolichucky is "well known among professional fishermen."

He noted that a new executive order that became law in September gives priority to additional federal money "to support the sport of angling" on federal property. He said he thinks this may provide opportunities for help with habitat improvement.

A group in the upper Midwest, called the Smallmouth Alliance, with about 2,000 members in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin, has expressed interest in affiliating with Smallmouth Unlimited, he said.

Williams asked if the organization thinks it can help local tourism efforts. Cutler said he believes it will.

Eric Cobble, director of development for Smallmouth Unlimited, said the organization will be headquartered in Greeneville, but will have chapters elsewhere. "My goal is to bring tours to Greeneville," Cobble said.

Cutler said a group of 10 fishermen from California has contacted him recently about a guided fishing trip on the Nolichucky. More information is available at www.smallmouthunlimited.org.

The rest of the meeting involved a general discussion of the many abandoned tires that remain in the Nolichucky River.

Williams noted that the county government now has an additional $36,000 to use for tire removal because of a fine assessed against DTR.

She also noted, however, that tires in the river have been a problem for a long time. The recent prolonged drought lowered the river level enough that tires that until then had been hidden became visible again.

As previously reported in the Sun, DTR Tennessee Inc. has given the Greene County government a $36,000 check to help with removal of discarded tires from the Nolichucky River.

DTR paid the county in lieu of paying a penalty for what TDEC called an unintentional environmental infraction in 2007. DTR paid remediation costs directly.

Agmann asked if "anybody is doing anything to make it easier for residents to dispose of tires" that they pull out of the river? She said the county's garbage convenience centers will only accept four tires per person, per year.

Greeneville Alderman Sarah Webster, a member of the Alliance and also chairman of the city/county solid waste planning board, said free tire collections have been held at times in the past, but are unlikely to be held again because they are too costly for government.

Greeneville Environmentalist Debbie Smith said it costs the city and county $150 per ton to dispose of used tires that do not come directly from a tire dealer. The state provides a grant that partially offsets that cost in the case of tires from dealers, because dealers collect a $1 per tire fee that goes directly to the state.

Smith said Greene County has signed a contract with Washington County, which operates a collector site for used tires.

Disposing of used tires has been a problem for the city and county "forever," Smith said, and so far, no economical or easy answer has been found.