A River: Nolichucky

A River: Nolichucky

Not just Fish

Stan Olmstead: January 26, 2017

To know the environment of the Nolichucky River there must be some knowledge of its physical setting. The river is 115 miles long with a watershed of 1762 square miles. The named portion of the river starts where the Cane and Toe River come together upstream from Poplar North Carolina, the river courses it’s way west as it descends to White Pine Tennessee. While the origin of the name has long been debated it’s believed to have-been derived from the name of a Cherokee village, Na’na-tlu gun’yi or "Spruce-Tree Place" near Jonesborough, prior to American settlement the Nolichucky was occupied by the Cherokee with numerous villages established along the river corridor. First contact by Europeans was possibly by Desoto’s trek across the South East and archeology finds have located Spanish relics mixed with Cherokee artifacts from abandoned village sites. During the 1770s European frontiersmen established the "Nolichucky settlements" along the river, now the eastern counties of Tennessee. Historical figures such as Daniel Boone traveled through the area and the famed military leader and first governor of Tennessee, John Sevier, settled near Jonesborough and for a while lived on his Nolichucky property. Near present day Limestone Tennessee, in 1786, the frontiersman David Crockett was born and the site is now Davy Crockett Birthplace State Park. The Cherokee continued to occupy the area until Andrew Jackson forced removal on the “Trail of Tears”.

Shortly after leaving Poplar North Carolina the Nolichucky begins cascading through the deep Nolichucky Gorge one of the deepest gorges in the east. It later flows into the Valley and Ridge province of East Tennessee’s Appalachian’s and through this topography the river becomes gentle as it meanders toward White Pine with small farms and communities along the way. In the upper reaches of the river the geology of the area is underlain by metamorphic rock of Precambrian. When the river enters Tennessee and it drops through the gorge it flows into the Ridge and Valley province underlain by sedimentary rock of Lower Paleozoic material.  

South of Greeneville the river enters Davy Crockett Lake held back by the Nolichucky Dam. The dam was constructed for hydroelectric by Tennessee Electric Power Company in 1912. It was sold to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in 1939. The TVA continued to operate the dam for electrical power until the 1970s. Siltation within the reservoir has made continued efforts to operate hydroelectric impractical. TVA continues to maintain it for flood control and recreation.

After spilling over the Nolichucky Dam, the river, continues to meander through farmland another 20 miles before it discharges into the French Broad River now Douglas Lake. Douglas Lake is the end of the Nolichucky. Construction of Douglas Dam was a World War II-era TVA project.

 Today some of the most scenic and technical whitewater trips in the South are from Poplar, North Carolina to Unaka Springs, Tennessee as it cascades through the Nolichucky Gorge. However this part of the river also is paralleled by the CSX railroad impacting the naturalness of the river. The natural history of the river includes the lush riparian vegetation along the river corridor where avian and terrestrial wildlife find habitat. The river includes numerous fish species including black bass, catfish, drum, trout, muskie and more. Aquatic turtles can be found within the river and include river cooters and snapping turtles. More than 30 species of freshwater mussels occupy the river but are in decline due to habitat loss. Reduction in the diversity and abundance of mussels is attributed in part to water impoundments. Changes in mussel faunas as a result of impoundment are well documented with change in water depth, temperature, dissolve oxygen, increased sedimentation, and loss of resident fish hosts that affect the survival of mussels and their reproduction.  Fisheries health is important for mussels as the larval forms (glochidia) of the mussels attach to the fish and live part of the life upon this host. Because mussels are thought to be the longest-lived invertebrates, with longevity of more than 100 years for some species, declines may continue for decades caused by dams, pollution and silting.  Numerous species of mussels in the Nolichucky are now federally listed as endangered.

Much of the pollution of the river is due to high sediment loads from agriculture and land disturbance caused by mining the upper watershed for feldspar deposits. Storm water run off, municipal waste treatment plants and septic tank add human waste coliforms and chemicals. Other detrimental contaminants include livestock manures, nitrates, nitrites, metals, radioactive material and numerous other pollutants as we conduct our daily activities.

One industry is the newly operational U.S. Nitrogen LLC explosive factory near Greeneville.  They process ammonia, nitric acid and aqueous ammonium nitrate for making explosives. Another authorized discharge is Nuclear Fuels Services (NFS), in Erwin Tennessee, which enriches uranium for nuclear submarines. NFS is allowed a number of contaminant discharges including small amount of uranium and it has been documented that this company has had unauthorized discharges. Presently there is a “hot spot” of radiation in the sediments of Davy Crockett Lake. These are but two of the many authorized discharges and polluters that cause concern, there are far more permitted discharges on the watershed of the two states each polluting and accumulating chemicals into the waters.   

To protect surface waters our government has legislated Environmental laws such as the Federal Water Pollution Control Act  (Clean Water Act) CWA, 1972, administered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This law: “is to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation's waters by preventing point and nonpoint pollution”.  The CWA preamble declares that: “Our nation’s waters should be swimmable and fishable”, water discharges by industry are authorized by the EPA but normally administered by state through the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) a requirement of the CWA.

Tennessee also has water quality law, the Tennessee Water Quality Control Act; 1979, recognizes that: “the waters of Tennessee are the property of the state and are held in public trust for the use of the people of the state, it is declared as public policy that the people of Tennessee, as beneficiaries of this trust, have a right to unpolluted waters”. In the exercise of its public trust over the waters of the state, Tennessee has an obligation to take all prudent steps to secure, protect, and preserve this right. It is further declared that “the purpose of this is to abate existing pollution of the waters of Tennessee, to reclaim polluted waters, to prevent the future pollution of the waters, and to plan for the future use of the waters so that the water resources of Tennessee might be used and enjoyed to the fullest extent consistent with unpolluted waters”.

As mentioned above an aspect of the CWA is the NPDES which the EPA or State provide authority for point source discharge approval. It is these authorizations that are based on the “solution to pollution is dilution”. In Tennessee it is the Department of Conservation and Environment (TDEC) and their Water Quality Division. The Water Quality Division works in unison with EPA to assure waters are not being polluted.

The “rub” comes to water quality over-sight in the allowances of pollutions. In Tennessee the rule is referred to it as “de minimis”. This has been the standard for a long time, dilute it enough and the pollution isn’t a problem. It is said in Tennessee, “if the water is polluted you can’t pollute but if it is unpolluted you can pollute”.  Water quality by the state with guidance by the EPA requires anti-degradation to prevent pollution to occur. However state law has a caveat that discharge pollutants can occur if: “important economic or social development in the area in which the waters are located would be beneficial”.  Another rule but complicated is the 7Q10 rule, in short a statistical reference of a stream at a low flow for 7 consecutive days in a 10-year recurrence period. This rule is connected with pollution in a diluted manner by de minimus. In association with the 7Q10 rule it states that if there is less than 5% impact and does not show a quantitative or cumulative impact then the pollution is allowed with standards set for specific chemicals by the EPA. Another rule set by the CWA are mixing zones; at the point of discharge the polluter can have a higher concentration of pollutant than allowed for de minimus as it will be mixed with the river waters soon and fulfill the dilution requirement.

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), 1933, is the major land owner of the water way and has been charged by Congress with improving navigation, controlling floods, providing for the proper use of marginal lands, providing for industrial development, and providing power at rates as low as is feasible, all for the general purpose of fostering the physical, economic, and social development of the Tennessee Valley region. TVA’s public lands are the sites of power generating system and arteries for delivering power. Many of the region’s parks, recreation areas, and wildlife refuges important for the region’s quality of life are on lands TVA made available. TVA public lands often have been the catalyst for economic development that supports these activities. Over the years TVA has transferred some of this land to other public agencies as with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA). TVA is responsible for the control and use of the Tennessee River and its tributaries and the development and use of the resources in the Tennessee Valley. TVA reservoir properties have been used for public parks, industrial development, commercial recreation, residential development, tourism, and forest and wildlife management areas. Although TVA is a dominant agency of the Nolichucky River other agencies include the National Forest Service on the headwaters and State and local parks and wildlife refuges on the middle and lower sections of the river. Governmental agencies are not the only organizations that work for the health of the river, a myriad of private conservation groups such as the Sierra Club, Tennessee Clean Water Network and others provide valuable protection often political and/or legal.

Recreation on the river includes, tubing, fishing, boating, and more. A study of the river quickly shows aquatic health concerns and that we could be doing better to protect the Nolichucky. The Cherokee people lived and flourished on the banks of the river for centuries directly taking waters for their daily activities. We take waters from the river but are not able to drink that water until it is purified.  The Nolichucky is fouled with our waste, trash, sediments, chemicals, water impoundments and oxygen depletion and all have altered aquatic life, resulting in species loss or decline. Davy Crockett Lake just a century old is of little value now but impossible to remove as the contaminations and sediments if released would fill in Douglas Lake and the down stream river system. We have failed in our effort to protect what is vital for safe and clean waters and have stolen a civil right of our citizens to enjoy and prosper with clean water. Industry, jobs and money take president and we should reverse this action. We count on our government agencies like the EPA and TDEC to administer the water wisely but business influenced legislators and executives cater to the money handlers and allow more pollution than is healthy for the surface waters and the life it nurtures. The CWA and TWQCA need revision to assure the users of our waters pay the price for clean water instead of the citizens.  This legislative responsibility would provide the environmental, social and economic justice a river as beautiful as the Nolichucky deserves.  

Only a River in Tennessee: The Nolichucky

Only a River in Tennessee: The Nolichucky 

January 22, 2017 

Stan Olmstead

The Nolichucky River, pristine and beautiful for millenniums but with white settlement; agriculture, development and industry it changed. Don’t get me wrong; it’s still pretty and to an extent wild. Not a long river, 115 miles, 150 miles if you extend up the Toe and Cane Rivers to North Carolina’s Mount Mitchell. The named portion of the Nolichucky originates near Popular North Carolina and ends near White Pine Tennessee. A watershed of 1762 square miles (64% in TN and 36% in N.C.), cascading through the deep Nolichucky Gorge and into the Valley and Ridge province of East Tennessee’s Appalachian’s finally discharging into the French Broad River. Did I say French Broad, I should have said Douglas Lake, two reservoirs impact the Nolichucky; Davy Crockett Lake (built in 1913, now silted) near Greeneville, the other Douglas Lake (built in 1943) near Morristown extensively used for recreation. These reservoirs are but two of more than 30 reservoirs in Tennessee built early last century for flood control and hydropower not bad for flood control and electricity but not naturalness of the river.  

The Nolichucky is representative of many waterways in our nation and our impacts to the natural system most of us don’t give thought. When talking of water pollution we refer to point source pollution and non-point source pollution. Nearly every major river of the U.S. is negatively impacted by our development, storm water, agricultural, municipal wastewaters and industry discharges. This occurs on the watershed of the Nolichucky as the water flows from the mountain to the sea.

 We may all agree that water is pretty important but wanting clean water and having clean water is different as the requirement gets in the way of our business, activity and behavior. The United States has done pretty well caring for water quality but not well enough. The Federal Water Pollution Control Act  (Clean Water Act) CWA, was signed in 1972 by Richard Nixon and is administered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), one of Nixon’s new governmental agencies. The time that rivers caught fire or caused direct mortality doesn’t seem to be occurring but the waters remain fouled and species are declining.

Another aspect of the CWA is the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) which the EPA or State provide authority for point source discharge approval. It is these authorizations that are based on the “solution to pollution is dilution”. In Tennessee there are many beautiful waterways but nearly all of the larger streams and rivers have been impounded, laden with sediments, polluted by chemicals, agriculture nutrients, storm water, municipal waste and point source discharges by industry.

  

State government in combination with the federal government is the caretakers of our waters and they work pretty hard. Some would even say they do a “damn” good job. However, state and federal legislators have applied caveats to water quality law, and have written rules and regulation that assure a means to pollute. They exempt agriculture in the CWA, standardize pollution quantities in milligrams pre-liter of discharge as well as many other exemptions that pollute our national waters.

Besides the CWA and EPA each of the states have instituted their own state water agencies for control of their specific waters. In Tennessee it is the Department of Conservation and Environment and the Water Quality Division. Tennessee enacted the Tennessee Water Quality Control Act (1979).  The Water Quality Division works in unison with EPA to assure waters are not being polluted. The EPA has “primacy” but the state is the normal administrator of the waters, it’s understood that a state can have cleaner waters than EPA requires but must abide at a minimum the standards set by EPA.

The “rub” comes to water quality over-sight in the allowances of pollutions. In Tennessee the rule is refer to it as “de minimis”. This has been the standard for a long time, dilute it enough and the pollution isn’t a problem. There are reasons for this approach but convenience and business is most important. Our federal and state legislators and our federal and state executives do not want to imped business and public activities so they limit the burden of cleaner waters being placed on the offending polluter. To do so would possibly make the activity or business not cost effective.  Instead they have the citizen pay in a multitude of ways this cost by placing numerous caveats to the law.  Agriculture is exempt, storm water is managed differently, municipalities manage their wastewaters different than other point source activities and point source discharges of pollution are authorized with levels of pollution they refer to as de minimus. It is said in Tennessee, “if the water is polluted you can’t pollute (Section 303(d) of the CWA) but if it is unpolluted you can pollute”.

Pollution accumulates in the water and as the user removes water for use and discharges waste waters, it continues to accumulate.  Over time the impacts to the river cause the aquatic habitat to be compromised. Agriculture with it’s high load of sediment and nutrients, industry with it’s mining and land disturbance combined with waste waters, infrastructure development and storm water run off with all of our trash (motor oil, antifreeze, cigarette butts, development, road construction), city or home waste processing in the form of waste treatment plants or home septic tanks, and large water impoundments for flood control and electricity. These accumulated chemicals and solids enter the river and damage it’s life and along with the water impounding reservoirs, altering stream flow, changing water temperatures and depth. This negative process continues in each and every waterway until it at last is discharged into the sea. For the Nolichucky it is the French Broad, Tennessee, Ohio and Mississippi River and then finally the Gulf of Mexico resulting in a large dead zone incapable of normal biological life due to oxygen depletion, sediments and chemicals.

So in an effort to make a change, to stand up to the death of rivers like the Nolichucky, to reverse our behavior, we should challenge each and every polluting source. For me and at this moment, it is an explosive factory near Greeneville Tennessee, U.S. Nitrogen LLC.  Their processing of ammonia, nitric acid and aqueous ammonium nitrate has just begun this past November and they are but a long list of polluters that are damaging rivers that for millenniums were pristine. Our aquatic systems are impaired, species of life are being lost and altered, drinking water is compromised and recreation activities change. For the Nolichucky the process starts on the slopes of Mount Mitchell and ends in the Gulf of Mexico. We all pay a price for this pollution and a small number of individuals make a profit. Our legislators and administrators accept this process as just normal business but we citizens have a vast amount of expense for this accepted process and it should be changed for environmental justice, economic justice and social justice; I argue it is a civil right, the species of life in each and every river of our nation depend on healthy streams and rivers.

Activities

Stan in the Uintah's

Snowmass - Colorado

McKee Springs - Utah 

Jason in the Uintah's 

Stan on San Luis Peak; Colorado 

Saving a River

Women's Rally Asheville; January 21, 2017

Alaska near Seward, 1970

The Barn at our farm in Ohio, last building standing

Steve, Peter and a forgotten tag along on the slopes of Crestone Peak, Colorado

Where it all started, Mark and Stan at Leesville Lake, 1951

Lori, Denver and I at Laural Falls, Tennessee

Dick grouse hunting in Uintah county, Utah 2008

Pictograph at Deluge Cave Jones Creek Dinosaur National Monument

Riding the Durango-Silverton train in Colorado

Near Crested Butte Colorado

Near home west of Jonesborough and looking west. 

A Friend from the past, rest Oliver 

Corona Arch near Moab

Lincoln's home in Springfield Illinois 

My Opposition to Trump

My Opposition to Donald Trump becomes Personal

December 30, 2016

Stan Olmstead

Fear of outsiders, economic concerns and dislike of professional politicians led to a perfect storm of political turmoil this year and it has become personal. The new challenge includes family seeing Trump as a solution. It’s difficult to talk to those that support Trump, a man I view with indignation. I have been shunning conversations with those I see to have character flaws. The personality and values of Trump the person and Trump the Politian is repugnant. American’s have always held a “myth” about their integrity and values. Early our nation never held up to that ideal; slavery, wars of aggression, civil rights, McCarthyism, degradation of our environment, the list is lengthy, now “skewed” towards a narcissistic, racist, misogynistic, xenophobic and selfish individual concerned only with personal gain.  

This negative view of value and character is challenging. Maturity and wisdom asks us to understand and advocate for social, economic and environmental justice. Our election demonstrates a greater need to promote justice.

Having such a poor view of Trump’s personality and dislike for the man’s character; values you would never want a child to emulate, shocking so many in the nation see him a solution. Dan Rather’s recent article: “We must all stand up’ to Trump.” Rather says all Americans must hold President-elect Donald Trump accountable. History will demand to know which side you were on. This is not a question of politics, party or policy. This is a question about the very fundamentals of our beautiful experiment in a pluralistic democracy ruled by law. Without social, economic and environmental justice, America ideals are lost.

Social Justice; listening to loved ones excuse the horrible events of slavery, cause of the civil war, logic of segregation, the holocaust, Black Lives Matter as terrorism, dismissal of the “Standing Rock” people and their cultural heritage. These issues and more I heard in a lifetime of family discussions. Discouraging to hear and remain polite, but now as they support Trump, I see the issue is far worse then I understood, our nation is regressing with a clash of personalities, values and ethics. Maybe the acceptance of a black president was too much, so much political correctness, the “pressure valve” released in an ugly expression. If political correctness, I argue wouldn’t you be polite to others, as politeness is correctness.

Economic Justice; the poor, the needy, the under privileged, those individuals for what ever reason are in hardship and need assistance; but there is little sympathy; $15 minimum wage is challenged, welfare systems liberal and the poor take advantage of the system, I suppose? But are the rich actually different, do they really contribute; they take advantage of the system and compromise justice, all forgotten during family discussions. Citizens United, money as freedom of speech, buy your way to more richness through influence (e.g. Koch brothers).  

Environmental Justice; the Environmental Community opposes Trump as an aggressive antagonist to the health of land, air and water and see him with distain. I doubt if Trump has used the term “environment” much in life, except when it challenges his business. I doubt if he has taken a walk in a forest, on a mountainside or upon a beach with the sole purpose of enjoying nature. His campaign never mentioned environmental issues accept to exploit.  

George W. Bush exploited the environment, a time I worked for the Bureau of Land Management. The agency mission: “sustaining the health, diversity and productivity of publics lands for present and future generations”. Working in northeast Utah our office focused on fossil fuel development as top priority permitting energy drilling at the expense of the land, air, water and other resource values.  

Prior to becoming Vice President, Dick Cheney was Haliburton’s CEO and as VP he retained his energy interests.  He met with energy executives to plan the oil and gas of the U.S. as top priority. The Bush administration worked with a republican congress in passage of the 2005 Energy Act and to rewrite the Resource Management Plans at BLM locations where energy resources were prevalent.

Trump, anti-environmentalist in the extreme, his business interests exploitive. Selection of Exxon executive Rex Tillerson for the State Department, like Cheney it is doubtful that he will start looking out for the interest of the American people, it is more probable that he will continue in his energy executive role to promote fossil fuels.  However, Tillerson’s nomination will have him testify under oath to Congress and answer for his company’s decades of climate change denial.

Ryan Zinke as Secretary of the Interior defies easy labels. Representative Zinke spent 23 years with the Navy Seals before returning to Montana and a political career in the state house and Congress. He defends public access to federal lands but votes against environmentalists on issues ranging from coal extraction to oil and gas drilling. Zinke criticized Interior Department rules aimed at the release of methane from oil and gas operations and favored the Keystone pipeline. During a 2014 debate he said of climate change: “It’s not a hoax, but it’s not proven science either.” Zinke embodies the worst kind in Congress, favoring “welfare handouts” for dying coal companies and crumbling oil and gas giants. Greenpeace climate specialist Diana Best said: “coal demand is shrinking globally and people across America want a Department of the Interior that will protect our public lands in perpetuity.” He did vote positively for public land issues such as voting against the GOP’s 2016 budget to sell public lands. Zinke has also opposed efforts by House Natural Resources Chairman and regressive shortsighted congressman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) to transfer over millions of acres of public lands to states for fossil fuel energy without concern for climate change and other environmental issues.   

Environmental Protection Agency, Oklahoma Republican and attorney general Scott Pruitt, frequent antagonist of the EPA. Trump stated: “the Environmental Protection Agency has spent taxpayer dollars on an out-of-control anti-energy agenda that has destroyed millions of jobs….” Pruitt sued the EPA over nearly every major regulation and has led the fight against rules for the Clean Power Plan and Clean Water Rule. A close ally to fossil fuel industries and he doubts climate change.

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry to head Energy, an agency he once sought to eliminate. Perry will inherit a department that has focused on promoting clean energy and reducing dependence on fossil fuels. His selection is the GOP’s emphasis on energy sources like coal and oil. Trump’s transition team recently submitted a questionnaire to the Energy Department seeking out the names of staffers who participated in international climate change meetings, the agency refused. Scientific organizations representing government employees have denounced the request as intrusive and inappropriate target of career staff.  The 2016 Republican Party platform could be the beginning of an authoritarian approach to silence science.

See the dilemma, a fearful family concerned about change in a direction contrary to a stereotypic America, electing a regressive and personality troubled leader. Trump plans social, economic and environmental problems solving on a business formula and selects the richest and most regressive leaders for agencies setting aside all of our democratic values to capitalize on the consumption of our resources. Our nation is in peril and those that I know and love are in “cahoots” with a “psychotic” personality we all know as “Trump”.