Below is a post on Boatertalk. Read through this and submit your comments to the name and address that I have put in bold.

Allen


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:

1. The new landfill will fill in 0.82 acres of wetland.

2. 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.

3. 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).

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: [content.usatoday.net]

I 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:
[tn.gov]
[www.tennessee.gov]
[www.state.tn.us]


Please forward this email to anyone who would help in opposing this landfill.


Kind regards,

Trent Ganstine
President
Tennessee Scenic Rivers Association
www.paddletsra.org
tganstine@comcast.net

Folks,
After having time to read through the links in the article above, we all need to act together in opposition to this proposal as we did with the Chattooga Access issue, but even more strongly. While the Chattooga issue is a matter of access, I consider this a much more urgent issue. This landfill could forever destroy one of the most beautiful stretches of water in the southeast. Almost everyone in the BWA has paddled parts of this river. Please read the USA today article on the issues that have followed the TVA coal ash spill. I will begin drafting a letter today that we can use as a template for our responses. We only have until April 5, 2010 to get our comments in.

Allen



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/09/2010 05:38PM by eakirkwood.

not sure how much info I can share, but I will say that the site in question did not make the final cut for fly ash disposal sites. the only site in Scott County that they might consider is east of Hwy 27 and not in the BSF watershed.

this does not take away from the other issues at this site. The landfill would affect the East Branch of Bear Creek near Hwy 27.

Thanks Brandon for the update. I have stricken any comments regarding coal fly ash from the letters below.

All:
Below is what I sent to both Hal Rogers and Ben Chandler. Feel free to copy and paste into an email to both of them. Edit the text in italics accordingly. We may not be able to affect the outcome of this decision, but if we do not try we are destined to fail.

Here are the email addresses for both:

Email Hal Rogers
Email Ben Chandler

your name
your address
your town, state zip code


Dear Congressman name:

I am writing to inform you that the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Division of Solid Waste Management has tentatively decided to issue a permit for a landfill on a tributary of the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River near Oneida, TN.

As you know, the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River flows through many communities in southern Kentucky. In a public notice from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, file NRS 09.273, page 2, "Degradation: In accordance with the Tennessee Antidegradation Statement (Rule 1200-4-3-.06), the division has determined that the proposed activities will result in degradation to the water quality."

This is water that flows into the communities of southern Kentucky. I am asking you to help protect the scenic beauty of the BSF of the Cumberland and preserve the water quality by opposing the issuance of this permit.

Respectfully,
Your name

Great work Allen. I'll send off the emails right now. Hope everyone can take a minute or two to do the same!

Thanks!
bethany

Thanks, Allen! Emails sent.

Thanks Allen for making this easy.
Brent