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.