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Thursday, 7/27/2000

Sewage Runover Causes Fish Kills in Harpeth River

By Melonee McKinney / Staff Writer and Staff Reports

FRANKLIN -- People are advised to avoid the waters of the Harpeth River downstream of the Franklin Wastewater Treatment Plant near Fieldstone Farms and Cottonwood Estates after a 90,000-gallon overflow of raw sewage.

The city reported Sunday that a foreign object lodged in a blade of a pump at a sewage pumping station causing the overflow and a fish kill, according to the state Department of Environment and Conservation.

The sewage ran into the Harpeth via Spencer Creek. People on the river yesterday said they saw more dead fish.

Local songwriter Trey Bruce spotted it Sunday while in-line skating behind the Williamson County Recreation Center.

"I went over to the river and saw hundreds of fish dead or dying," he said. "There were bream and crappie and maybe some bluegill that were swimming upside down. There were catfish turning white. A lot of the bigger, 2- and 3-pound fish were already dead, but most of them weren't dead yet.

"You couldn't count all the fish that were swimming upside down and washed up on the rocks in both directions as far as I could see."

"The smell was unbelievable," he said. "I live on the seventh hole at Spencer Creek and four out of five days we can't go in my back yard because of the smell. But Sunday the smell was worse than usual."

Officials with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency are assessing the damage to the aquatic life, likely caused by the lack of oxygen in the water after the spill.

Eddy Woodard, Franklin water and wastewater director, said he wasn't surprised wildlife was affected by Sunday's spill because of the low level of the water.

"Unfortunately, it is unavoidable. The streams are flat dry anyway and the pools of water are very low on oxygen and the introduction of sewage into the water would deplete whatever oxygen is left."

Gene Cotton of the Harpeth River Watershed Association, a group whose goal is to clean up the river, said: "It's unfortunate."

Cotton said in addition to sewage and low water levels, the abundance of construction also is taking its toll on the river because of drainage and ground saturation problems.

"The sewage plants are not the major problem with the Harpeth," Cotton said. "The major problem is the construction. But that doesn't mean you can't build a Super Wal-Mart.

"But if you are going to build a parking lot, for example, don't build one that is totally paved over. Design it with some islands and grass to absorb some of the water to prevent all of it from rushing directly back into the river.

"Those things cost more, but we've only got one Harpeth River."

The sewage is continuing to move downstream, according to the state. The hazard will be temporary and will eventually dilute with the river flow. More investigations to determine when the public health threat is removed will be done.

Meanwhile, Franklin has begun trying to pump some of the contaminated water from the river, the state says.

http://www.tennessean.com/sii/00/07/27/harpeth27.shtml

-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), July 27, 2000