Water on a bluff

City Councilman Joe Hultquist convened a public meeting in South Knoxville to discuss a water tower that sprung up on Chapman Ridge above Fort Loudoun Lake in December. The tower sits on a small parcel of land just outside the city limits and will serve existing and future development along the ridge, including the Cherokee Bluff condominiums. The condominiums had been without adequate water service to meet fire protection needs since they were built, and they are the highest elevation development in the vicinity, thus dictating the height of the tower, which can be seen from downtown and many vantage points in South Knoxville. Two new developments along Cherokee Trail and a third in construction forced the Knoxville Utilities Board to upgrade its water service. Ratepayers will cover $600,000 of the $2.2 million price for the tower and water lines, with the two developers sharing the remainder. Two adjacent parcels of mostly undeveloped land would also be served by the tower should development plans materialize. The Metropolitan Planning Commission approved the tower in September, yet most residents and public officials learned of the project when they saw the tower erected. Hultquist said he would try to halt the project and also said the city should consider protecting its ridges. KUB and MPC officials attended the meeting to explain how the decision to build the tower was made.

Old-time road revival

Officials from local, state and federal government convened in Etowah on Nov. 29 for a public presentation by a Knoxville developer urging construction of a new highway east of Chattanooga. The Appalachian Regional Commission has been accumulating funds for this "Corridor K" project for several decades, but the $80 million kitty was dwarfed by estimates for upgrading U.S. 64 through Ocoee Gorge. A study done as part of a 2003 Environmental Impact Statement(EIS) determined it would cost nearly a billion dollars to make that century-old road into a four-lane highway. The road is notorious for slow traffic, and accidents occur almost twice as often as on similar highways. Developer Wilbur Smith Associates cited decreased reliability of employees traveling on the road and the need for an efficient route to coastal ports in a globalized economy as primary economic justifications for the highway. Transportation officials plan to initiate a new EIS process encompassing a broader range of options, from building a bypass around the gorge to finding novel routes between Chattanooga and Asheville, N.C. One proposed alternate route follows an unpaved Forest Service road known as Kimsey Highway, which stretches through Cherokee National Forest between Archville and Harbuck, twice crossing the Benton MacKaye Trail. Congress will revisit funding for the project in 2009.

Building a better pine plantation

A federal forest in Mississippi was chosen to house a loblolly pine gene bank, and an Oregon forest will hold a similar collection of Douglas fir diversity. Thousands of grafts will be grown as a living genetic archive, and researchers will work with the diverse lines to identify and understand genotypes. Artificial breeding will be used to find and propogate vigorous hybrids. The U.S. Department of Agriculture(USDA) awarded six million dollars to a team headed by David Neale of the University of California-Davis, who will work through U.S. Forest Service research stations in Saucier, Miss. and Corvallis, Ore. to develop the experimental and archival stocks. The Forest Service is a USDA agency. Genetic catalogs exist for several food crops and a hardwood tree, but these will be the first conifers sequenced.

Get sustainable now

Tennessee Conservation Voters and the Tennessee Environmental Council convened the first “Summit for a Sustainable Tennessee” at Lipscomb University in Nashville. The groups aim to create a long-term agenda for the state based on sustainability principles, which blend economic prosperity with resource conservation. Business, government and citizen interests will work together to draft a “Sustainability Agenda.” Summits will be held annually. Closer to home, the City of Knoxville assembled an energy and sustainability task force. The panel of 15 representatives from community organizations and 10 city officials will develop a strategic plan for the city. Its first task is conducting an energy audit of city operations. Three working groups have formed, aimed at transportation and land use, buildings, and waste and recycling.

Give and you shall receive

The Tennessee Clean Water Network(TCWN) presented its annual River Hero award to Wilma Dykeman. Dykeman authored “The French Broad” in 1955 and was a lifelong advocate for the Appalachian people and environment. She died in December 2006. Senator Lamar Alexander presented the award to Jim Stokely, Dykeman’s son. Meanwhile, the organization was awarded the 2007 Green Paddle by the American Canoe Association for its statewide efforts protecting water quality. TCWN helped win a major victory in 2005 when the state legislature passed a bill allowing citizens to appeal pollution permits. This year the state passed a TCWN-sponsored bill requiring the Department of Environment and Conservation(TDEC) to post notices of water quality violations on its Web site. Their “Build the River Movement” program is helping unite communities across the state around water quality issues, and the network is working to pass the Water Quality Act, which includes an innovative penalty structure designed to reward good actors, discourage repeat offenders and bolster TDEC’s enforcement budget.

Don’t confuse the freddie

The U.S. Forest Service’s determined efforts to ignore management rules established in 2000 crept closer to success with the publication of an environmental impact statement. A five-year planning process started in 1995 culminated in “social, economic and ecological sustainability” being adopted as a management goal for public forests. When the agency’s leadership changed in 2001, the sustainability standard was rejected as “difficult and expensive.” The Forest Service conducted a review and “business analysis,” which revealed that “unnecessarily detailed requirements” would overwhelm their staff. The plan “did not recognize limitations on the availability of scientists” and “injects scientists directly into the planning process,” which the agency said “could lead to confusion about what role the scientists play in the decision.” They published an altered rule in 2002 that gutted ecological monitoring and scientific input and returned the agency to 1982 standards. Revisions and court challenges have prolonged adoption of a new plan, but the agency expects to finally publish its “feasible” version next year.

Knob has multiple uses

Trees are dying in a stand of aspen near High Knob in southwestern Virginia. Because aspen is rare in the eastern United States, the Forest Service is developing a plan to sustain and regenerate the grove. A citizen group called the Clinch Coalition is working to protect headwater forests of the Clinch River, winning withdrawal of a timber sale this summer after warning federal officials of flood risks downstream. In addition to the two acres of aspen, other rare plants live in the forest and rare mussels in the upper Clinch, so the coalition has pressed lawmakers to designate a national recreation area around High Knob. Much of the forest there is actively managed for timber production, with burns, thinning and plantings used to boost yield, but the new designation would bring restraints on logging activity. Meanwhile, federal officials plan to build three new parking lots and three miles of new trails and improve five miles of trail near the campground and lake on High Knob. Nearby in the North Fork of Pound Roadless Area, federal officials proposed development of 21 new gas wells because the lease predates the 1997 roadless designation. Eleven miles of road and 12 miles of pipeline would be built to service the wells, and the draft environmental impact statement will be published in December and open for public comment.