We have had enough of the mud. To read the notice and see the pictures click here.

Basically, we filed a notice to sue all the contractors and developers associated with the Legends of Oak Grove development.  That means Victor Jernigan and his minions.  We have more developers in the pipeline and we’re sending a message.  CLEAN UP YOUR SITES.  Mr. Jernigan has 60 days to decide whether to proceed to federal court or settle.

Lawsuits are pricey though.  Help us continue to make polluters pay by donating online. We have started the Clean Water Defense Fund.  Click down on program designation and help fund the lawsuit

We appreciate and need your help.

Renee

This memo from EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson give us some reason to hope!

First that want to be more transparent. Second, they want to raise the bar for enforcement performance. And third, they want to provide information that is easy to read and understand by the public.

Fans, I have died and gone to heaven!  Wait!  It’s just a memo.  Let’s see how they implement this.  It’s in the implementation after all!

RvH

Check out WBIR-TV tonight for a story on stormwater problems in Knox County featuring TCWN superstar volunteer James McMillan.

James has been out the last two days taking pictures of bad BMPs (Best Management Practices).  Each one of these photos documents a permit violation.

If you see anything like this in your neighborhood, let us know!  Send us a photo (info@tcwn.org) or give us a call (865-522-7007) so we can keep track of stormwater problems across the state.

All,

I just returned to San Jose, Costa Rica, from spending time in Monteverde to discover that on Dec. 22, one of the most devastating environmental disasters in Tennessee´s history occurred.  I´ve been following the online media from here and I am shocked at what the coverage reveals.

This problem is going to take years to fix.  The Network is committed to helping the community get what they need to have clean water and a healthy community.  We´ll be in it for the long haul and you can follow it here on our blog site.

More to come.

RvH

As a water quality policy person even I am unsure what EPA, TVA, TDEC, and other state and federal groups mean when they say the water is safe at the site of last week’s fly ash spill.  Safe for whom or what?  Safe to drink?  Safe to swim in?  Safe for the mussels or other aqautic life?  Safe for fishing?  In an apparent effort to quell the fears of residents the reports of water quality testing are vague and inadequate to fully detail the impact of this disaster on our water quality, aquatic life, and land use. 

The reports released thus far have had conflicting messages.  Just yesterday EPA released information stating there are high levels of aresenic in the area of the spill as well as heavy metal levels exceeding drinking water standards.  Is this safe?  The two streams directly affected by this contamination already suffer water quality impairments from mercury, PCBs, and chlordane.  How are these impaired water bodies able to dissipate the intense amount of added pollutants resulting from this spill as some groups have claimed?

It may be some time before we know the true impact of this disaster.  It is important for all monitoring to continue, full results be provided to the public, and direct understanding of this situation be advertised.  Of the utmost importance at this time is for those agencies in charge to do everything possible to appropriately and adequately clean up this mess and take every step possible to prevent such incidnents from occuring ever again.  This type of catastrophe has significant impacts to us, our recreational outlets, our food supply, our drinking water supply, aquatic life, and land use.  This is by no means an isolated event to a specific site in our state, but a disaster with the potential to impact the environmental as a whole .