North
Carolina’s basinwide river plans are supposed to:
• Identify water quality problems and restore full use to impaired
waters.
• Identify and protect high value resources waters.
• Protect unimpaired waters while allowing for reasonable economic
growth.
• Develop appropriate management strategies to protect and restore
water quality.
• Assure equitable distribution of waste assimilative capacity
for dischargers.
• Improve public awareness and involvement in the management
of the state’s surface waters.
The Little Tennessee River Basinwide Plan could set a precedent for
other plans across the state.
Callie Dobson, basin planner for North Carolina’s Division of
Water Quality (DWQ), said the draft of the new five-year plan (2002-07)
for the Little Tennessee will include language addressing federally-listed
threatened and endangered species.
Although the basinwide plans are non-regulatory, recommendations on
how to protect endangered species could lead to state rules changes
or affect the issuance of discharge permits, said a representative
of the Southern Environmental Law Center.
“The plan has no legal standing, but it could provides a basis
of information the state could use to adopt a rule,” said Laura
Jones of the SELC. “It could be a stepping stone.”
The Little Tennessee Basinwide plan has been under scrutiny lately
after many river advocates spoke up at an August public hearing for
a proposed RV park. The park would dump up to 26,760 gallons of treated
sewage a day into the river to accommodate 175 RV sites and 24 two-bedroom
cottages. It would be the first such permit to be issued below Lake
Emory Dam.
And it’s not just environmentalists speaking up.
Macon County Commissioners in January sent a letter to Bill Ross,
secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources,
asking for a moratorium on point source discharges into the Little
Tennessee River between Lake Emory and Fontana Lake.
The letter states, in part: “... this stretch of the Little Tennessee
River is the most biologically complete stretch of river in North
Carolina and deserves special consideration. The Macon County Board
of Commissioners is currently in the process of developing a land-use
plan for the County. DENR is in the process of developing a basin
wide management plan for the Little Tennessee basin but will not be
able to address specific management plans for this stretch of the
river until the next five-year cycle.
“Any issuance of point source discharge permits prior to completion
of these two plans precludes the possibility of excluding point source
discharge as a part of these plans.”
Planning to protect
In the 1990s DWQ began formulating basinwide plans for the 17 major
river basins across the state. The plans are nonregulatory measures
designed to improve and protect the state’s waterways.
The basinwide plans are implemented and renewed on five-year cycles.
The first Little Tennessee plan was completed in 1997 and the new
plan will go into effect in 2002.
In August 2000 the state adopted a measure allowing for consideration
of endanger or threatened species. The rule says that certain waters
provide habitat for federally-listed aquatic animal species, and
that “maintenance and recovery of the water quality conditions”
to sustain these species should be attempted.
Dobson said her draft would implement this rule ahead of the time
table spelled out. She said the uniqueness of the Little Tennessee
from the Lake Emory Dam to Fontana Lake, plus the tenor of the public
comment she received, point to the need to include this language
in the 2002-07 plan.
The Little Tennessee is unique across the Southeast in that it still
retains representatives of all its native aquatic species. It is
home to nearly half the fresh water fish species found in the greater
Tennessee River system. The Little Tennessee is home to 19 aquatic
species listed as imperiled by the state of North Carolina plus
three federally-listed species: the endangered Appalachian elktoe
mussel (Alasmidonta raveneliana), the endangered little-wing pearly
mussel (Pegias fabula), and the threatened spotfin chub (Cyprinella
monacha).
The most pristine section of the Little Tennessee is the 25 miles
of river and 37 miles of tributaries from Lake Emory to Fontana.
The RV park proposed for the area below the Lake Emory Dam helped
galvanized support for the Little Tennessee, and river advocates
were very vocal at an August DWQ public hearing in Franklin to discuss
the wastewater discharge permit.
Dobson said all the 117 written comments she received concerning
the basinwide plan focused on that stretch of river and most commented
on the proposed permit, the August 2000 rule regarding federally-listed
species, or both.
She received 42 personal letters, 2 petitions with 33 signatures,
33 form letters and 9 agency and organization comments.
Dobson said the new plan will also consider non-point source pollution
which creates many problems, primarily with sedimentation, above
the Lake Emory Dam and in other areas of the basin. She said the
state Environmental Management Commission has asked DWQ to specifically
address the question of small trout farms in the basin. Pollution
from one such farm in Graham County severely degraded waters in
Santeetlah Lake, last year.
Dobson said DWQ was also working in cooperation with North Carolina’s
Division of Land Resources to understand why, in many instances,
that even with Best Management Practices (BMP) in place turbidity
standards in waterways adjacent to land-disturbing activities are
often exceeded. Dobson said she believes BMPs can be used to meet
turbidity standards.
Fisheries biologist Bill McLarney, who regularly inventories the
Little Tennessee and has helped rally support for the river, applauded
Dobson.
“DWQ needs more people like Callie. I appreciate her efforts
regarding the new basinwide plan,” said McLarney.
Jones, of the Southern Environmental Law Center, a non-profit environmental
advocacy group, said her organization was working to help local
groups be more effective. She said SELC had two major concerns with
the Little Tennessee plan. The first was that SELC didn’t feel
the original basinwide plan gave enough weight to the uniqueness
of the Little Tennessee, and the second was a legal protest to the
proposed RV park’s wastewater permit. Jones said SELC has sent
DWQ a lengthy legal comment opposing the issuance of the permit.
Jones also applauded Dobson’s efforts to improve the new draft
basinwide plan.
Dobson said the chief of the water quality section and/or the division
director would have the final say on the plan, and the final draft
should be available to the public by April. Citizens should be able
to review the plan at DWQ’s website, http://h2o.enr.state.nc.us
or by calling her at 919.733.5083, ext. 583.
