Several people showed up Thursday night to speak out against the state issuing a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit for the discharge of wastewater and storm water from Smyrna Ready Mix (SRM) Smithville Quarry on North Driver Road at Snow Hill. The public hearing held at the county complex was conducted by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation’s Division of Mineral and Geologic Resources.
(View video below of the public comments at the SRM NPDES permit hearing Thursday night. WJLE will post a separate story on the public comments at a later time)
During the hearing, the state took no questions but gave members of the public up to five minutes each to speak. Prior to the hearing, the state had information tables set up around the auditorium where staff showed plans and took questions from the public about the project.
Jessie McBride, Office of External Affairs representative with TDEC, served as hearing officer for the meeting. “The public hearing is to receive comments on the proposed issuance of a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit to Smyrna Ready Mix (SRM) Smithville Quarry for the discharge of treated mine wastewater and storm water from a limestone mining and processing facility in DeKalb County. The receiving stream for the proposed discharge is Drivers Branch. The draft NPDES permit number is TN0070737.”
“The proposed new NPDES permit area consists of 30 acres and mine wastewater and storm water would be treated in settling ponds prior to discharge and outfalls 001, 002, 003, and 004 to Drivers Branch” explained McBride. “The sediment control structures, and all appropriate best management practices meets or exceeds the divisions designed criteria. Drivers Branch is classified by the department as fully supporting its classified uses including fish and aquatic life, irrigation, livestock watering, wildlife, and recreation. The application asserts the proposed activity will only cause Demin iMIS degradation of parameters available. The NDPES permit is proposed to be issued for a five-year term, and the permittee must maintain coverage until all permit termination requirements are satisfied”.
If approved, the permit would require the quarry operator to monitor and report water discharge levels to the state and the public.
“The permittee is responsible for monitoring discharges from the facility and reporting results to TDEC and to the EPA,” said another TDEC representative during the hearing. “The NPDES program was established as a self-monitoring program by Congress in the 1970s. This was necessary considering the sheer number of facilities covered by NPDES permits. In Tennessee alone there are approximately 13,400 permits. Nationwide there are approximately 335,000 permits. There are not enough federal and state environmental regulators to conduct all necessary monitoring which would require a massive increase in staffing and funding of environmental regulatory agencies such as TDEC and EPA. TDEC conducts routine compliance inspections at all permitted facilities to ensure they are operated and monitored as required,” said the TDEC representative.
“When it comes to limestone quarries our only authority is over the quality of water that is discharged from the facility. The mining section only has the authority which has been vested in us by the state legislature,” said the TDEC representative. “We do not have any authority over the right to mine, property rights, planning, zoning, blasting, noise, dust, truck traffic, or other concerns. We are also prevented by state and federal law from considering these concerns when making a decision on a water quality permit. These permits do not negate or supersede any local restrictions, nor do local county restrictions prevent the issuance of a water quality permit. A water quality permit is not a land use permit, and it does not grant the permit holder the right to mine”.
Neighbors in the Snow Hill area first became aware of SRM last summer after being shaken by a blast during the company’s prep work for the quarry at the site. Complaints were filed with the state and county. In August the state found that SRM had been crushing without issuance of an NPDES permit.
SRM submitted an application in September after which the site was determined to be inactive. An Inspection for Hydrological Determination (HD) Report was received on September 12, 2024.
“A hydrologic determination is Tennessee’s process for determining the presence of jurisdictional streams,” said the TDEC representative. “A completed hydrological determination was submitted for this site in September. TDEC visited the site to confirm the findings. The hydrologic determination found two streams which were removed from the project area and protected buffers were established”.
By November SRM was again found by the state to be in non-compliance for operating without a permit and halted activity at the site.
“The complete application for this project was received on November 13, 2024,” said the TDEC official “ During the public comment period the TDEC division of natural areas informed the TDEC division of mineral and geologic resources that the Short Mountain Crayfish which is known to occur in the area had its status changed from ”deemed in need of management” to state “threatened” on December 25, 2024. The division requested that the applicant submit a consultation request to the TWRA which has jurisdiction over state listed species. The consultation was submitted by the applicant as requested and TWRA responded that they did not anticipate any adverse impact to state listed species”.
Locally, neighbors in recent months have complained to the county commission because a cease-and-desist order had not been sent by the county to SRM regarding the quarry on Snow Hill due to the fact that SRM had apparently been operating illegally without a permit prior to passage of the county powers act in October.
TDEC explained during the hearing how a county powers act could be enforced.
“NPDES permits are separate from any county powers act and powers act restrictions must be administered and enforced by the county or municipality. TDEC has no authority over any powers act but we were provided with a copy of it. The powers act works by requiring the license from the county clerk which can only be issued if the powers act requirements are met. As written, an applicant must first obtain all state permits before seeking approval under the powers act.
A final decision by the state on approval of the NPDES permit application by SRM is not expected for several weeks”.
Written comments related to the NPDES permit are still being accepted by the TDEC until April 7, 2025. Comments should be emailed to DMGR.PublicNotice@tn.gov or by mail to the TDEC Mining Section at 3711 Middlebrook Pike, Knoxville, TN 37921.