Tennessee environmental officials have rejected a controversial Hickman County sewage treatment plant plan, ending a two-year battle in which local residents outraged that their countryside would become a “latrine” for the rich and wealthy. The battle has come to an end for the time being. Nearby is a densely populated community.
The plant, proposed by the Dickson County Water District, could discharge 12 million gallons of treated wastewater per day into Lick Creek, a pristine tributary of the Duck River. The majority (more than 95%) were not expected to come from within Hickman, but from neighboring Dickson and Williamson counties.
In late December, the Tennessee Department of Environmental Conservation denied a permit application to build the facility, citing impacts to the stream and surrounding rural areas.
“The proposed degradation levels for small, high-quality rural streams are not justified by local economic development goals,” the agency said in a Dec. 21 notice. The report also noted that the proposal would “bring disproportionate economic benefits to Dickson and Williamson counties compared to Hickman County.”
Plans for wastewater treatment plant cause uproar in Hickman County
Rose Hart, co-founder of Friends of Lick Creek, said local residents and property owners are relieved.
Friends of Lick Creek, a nonprofit advocacy group formed to oppose the plant, hired a lawyer and worked to organize local residents to oppose the wastewater treatment plant.
“We are relieved and pleased that it will take just as much time, effort and money to fight the proposed treatment plant and the wastewater treatment plant, which will not benefit the county at all,” Hart said Thursday. I think they are very disgusted by the fact that they don’t have one.”
“Finally, justice is being served on behalf of communities like the hundreds, if not thousands, of others across the state and country who often have no chance against these private utilities. “It has been decided that this will be the case,” he said.
Utilities can appeal the state’s decision within 30 days. A message left Thursday with the company’s operations manager was not returned.
Last month, days before state officials announced the permit denial, $8.5 million was awarded to the Dickson County Water District to develop long-term regional projects to address regional needs for wastewater treatment in Dickson, Williamson and Hickman counties. announced a subsidy. They may be seeding alternative seeds for Lick Creek plants that they suggest.
A lingering controversy in Hickman County has excited many in the community of less than 25,000 people, who attended a controversial meeting with state officials by the hundreds and posted “Save Lick Creek” signs in their yards. They erected yellow signs saying this, complaining that the untouched, undeveloped area would be destroyed if things continued as they were. Rapidly growing “toilet” in Williamson and Dickson counties.
Lick Creek is designated an “exceptional” waterway and serves as a local drinking and recreational water source. It flows into the Duck River, known as one of the most biodiverse rivers in the world.
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