Reports from around the State January 2022

by Scott Banbury, Tennessee Chapter Conservation Program Coordinator
The Chapter’s work with locals to stop the destruction of mature hardwood forests in the Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency (TWRA) section of the Bridgestone/Firestone Centennial Wildlife Management Area has now grown to include the Catoosa Wildlife Management area, where TWRA has also been heavily harvesting the timber we’ve placed in their trust. We are working to schedule legislative hearings on why TWRA has made these management decisions over the objections of local hikers and hunters.
  The Nashville Metropolitan Council thwarted the attempt to turn the old Hutton Quarry on McCrory Lane in Bellevue, Tennessee, into a landfill by rezoning the property to preclude any use of the property for commercial landfill operations. State legislation is pending that would strip local government of powers over using inactive quarries as landfills, but it would not override the base zoning adopted for the Bellevue property.
  As a result of our partnership with Memphis Community Against Pollution, Protect Our Aquifer and the Southern Environmental Law Center, we were successful in passing a city ordinance that gives the Memphis City Council the final say over pipeline projects crossing municipal properties and easements. This will help ensure no more proposals for oil pipelines that might threaten the drinking water and safety of Memphis neighborhoods.
  We continue to organize against the new gas pipelines across Middle Tennessee that have been proposed to fuel new TVA power plants to replace the Kingston and Cumberland coal plants that TVA has decided to close. The Chapter is working with partners across the state to advocate for replacement of these plants with renewable energy and storage batteries rather than more fossil fuels. We’re also working with property owners along the proposed pipeline routes to protect their property rights from the pipeline companies.
  As you read this, the second year of the 112th Tennessee General Assembly will be underway, where we’ll be working to protect our streams and groundwater from a rapidly expanding land application sewer industry, promoting the adoption of an Extended Producer Responsibility bill, as well as legislation to strengthen local communities’ rights to say no to new or expanding landfills and quarries.
  Conservation Education Day, our state lobbying event, will be on March 2, 2022. If you’d to participate, be added to our weekly legislative reports and alerts, or get involved in any of the issues addressed above, contact me at scott.banbury@sierraclub.org or 901-619-8567.