Portland, Tennessee Blog

Well, Mischelle, you're right...fishy indeed.
I'm not saying that's the whole reason for it..but when I saw that in the Tennessean about the fish and environment, I started reading about the Endangered Species Act...and turns out that a lot of times, this Act has been used in many many cases for other purposes than to protect a particular species of animal or plant life. While it may have started out with a good purpose, it's become a tool to use to exercise power over people and control situations for other reasons.
As with all laws, it's abused when someone wants to stop a project or whatever other reason.
There are countless good projects that have been stopped because of some bird, fish, or plant that may or may not be in danger. It's all such a farce...but it's what the govt. chooses to waste money on. It's one of the most wasteful and counterproductive of the laws on the books. Businesses and citizens spend more than 600 Billion dollars a year complying with these govt. regulations !

So fish "in need of attention" are holding up our plans for a much needed water source, but all it took in a similar situation was for "endangered" fish to be upgraded to "threatened" (which is a step BELOW "in need of attention") for the TVA to get approval?

Something seems a little fishy here.

In the case of Tennessee Valley Authority vs Hill --- the snail darter was the reason for the construction stoppage on the Tellico Dam, which already had 100 million dollars invested in it. This case went all the way to the Supreme Court, before it was finally resolved by TVA having to transplant the "endangered" snail darter to another location, thus saving them from extinction. In the end, the snail darter was taken off the endangered list....because the snail darter was spotted in other areas,and the dam could be completed.

Perhaps, small in comparison to TVA vs Hill, Portland seems to be having it's own battle with the snail darter and the Endangered Species Act.

Once source I read from, says that the snail darter was used by those who didn't want the dam built....local landowners and farmers opposed the building of the dam and joined forces with the conservation groups to try to stop the construction of the dam so their land would not be flooded by the resulting resorvoir...
so...there is always more to a story than what it seems at first.....politics and money are always behind the scenes.

The T. V .A. hired frogmen to catch the darters below the dam and transplant them to other rivers. Subsequently, the snail darter was found to be more widely distributed than had previously been supposed. Tiny populations turned up not only in several other rivers in Tennessee but in a couple of adjacent Alabama and Georgia rivers as well-and its status was downgraded to threatened. So in the end the T. V .A. got its dam (even though Boeing had by then backed out of a proposal to build an industrial city near the dam, and one of the main reasons for building the dam had disappeared).

I hope Portland does not have to go through years of this kind of thing to get our water problem solved !

Humans are more important than some stupid fish. Is the whole ecosystem going to implode if we use the creek? I doubt it, but you never know. What about the fish in the creeks that the pipeline destroyed. Or all the homeless birds and squirrels from the trees. Where were the environmentalistically minded state officials when that got approved. I tend to agree with DeeAnna in that there is more to the story.

DeeAnna - thanks for sharing that. I had not read the story in The Tennessean. My source was from the September 12 edition of The Portland Progressive written by Daniel Suddeath. Below is an excerpt of the report:

"In a letter addressed to Wilber, TDEC cited the city had not 'met its burden of demonstrating that there is not a viable alternative to the proposed degradation of high quality waters.'"

"The denial of the permit centers on the upgrade of creek water to a tier 2 status. Tier 2 waters are of higher quality than the previous classification when the city officials first began the process and the change means the state is less likely to grant permission for changing the creek into a reservoir."

"The higher water quality and the alterations to the creek are the main reasons stated as to why TDEC denied the permit."

Here's a paragraph from the article that was in The Tennesean about one of the reasons for the denial of the dam and the lake :

"The rosyface shiner, splendid darter and the orangefish darter are among about 30 types of fish found in the Caney Fork Creek. These three are classified as in need of attention so they don't end up as threatened or endangered species, according to the wildlife agency.

The agency had opposed the first permit that the state Department of Environment and Conservation issued seven years ago. This time, the rules required more analysis of other options, according to Dan Eagar of the state environment department.

Cities and towns that want to dam a waterway must give detailed proof that there is no reasonable alternative, he said. Dams can result in warmer water, lower oxygen levels and problems with decaying leaves and other matter.

This results in a poorer habitat for the many aquatic creatures, including mussels, that need clean, flowing water to thrive. It also is a poorer drinking water source."

There was a suggestion that we could build a 20 million dollar pipeline to the Cumberland River...
for a solution to our problem.

Oh Lord, here we go with this “small town politics” debate again. This is the second time I’ve typed this reply. I’m on the road on the bus, and after typing this long drawn out reply, the wireless internet went out of range and I lost everything I typed. Oh well! Anyway; Digman? Where in the world are you coming from with your comments about corrupt small town politics? You know better than that, or at least I think you do. I’m not fussing, or being mad about the comments, I think we should all be able to say what we want to. But, the glory of this blog is that hopefully some of us can explain and clarify the rumors. Please come ask me next time before you get the wrong impression of what’s going on. The fact is: the TDEC (Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation) rejected our request to dam up the stream. From what little I know, it is VERY VERY common for them to do that, and we expected it. However, we couldn’t proceed until they responded to our request. We have been patiently waiting their response. WE are not dragging our feet, it’s just a time consuming process. There have always been those who wanted the lake, and those who did not. But we are now in full pursuit of the project. It’s up to us now to appeal the response and demonstrate, as all of you have been saying, that we NEED the water supply, and that damming the stream will do more GOOD than HARM! I personally don’t believe hat it’ll be a problem to convince them of that, but it’s just part of the “game”. If there’s any politics involved in this project, then it’s on a higher level than City Government! No one wants it to happen more than WE do!

yeah those little fish are alright, despite all of our yards turning into a golden crisp.its all small town corrupt politics plain and simple.oh, i want to commend beaver cleaver on his stellar game plan tonight.golly wally we got skunked again.beaver truly sux.

Mischelle, on the news story I saw on Channel 2, I believe it was.....they showed the water with these little fish and said they we got turned down because to dam up this water would cause the extinction of these little fish....and it would be environmentally wrong that those little fish to become extinct ...so they are being protected.

I think there's another story behind this one, personally. It really can't just be about those little fish. Anyway, that's what I saw on t.v.

I read in the paper that it had something to do with the "quality" of the water of the water in the creek being "upgraded" . . . uh, so am I understanding it correctly that the state wants our water supply to be of low quality? I don't understand their reasoning.

thats right deanna. every govt. contract seems to always go to them. hmmmmm. water going out of our town is water going out of our town, period. dumb descicion.if you dont believe a lot of people got greased on this deal, then follw me down the yellow brick road, toto is waiting patiently for us.

Thanks, Jody for that explanation.

I'm not jealous. Just curious how everything seems to have the Collins stamp on it here. Like nothing can get done without his okay or being involved in it in someway. It's great that he has done all the good things he has, but guess it kinda bothers me when one person has so much power over things and so much influence.

Maybe he could stock a lake with those precious little water creatures and save them, so we could have the dam built and help ease the water problem here in Portland.

Seriously, if they don't get that water problem solved, won't that affect building new subdivisions and factories etc ? Won't that put a stop to any future growth here?

Thought I'd chime in and explain the Collins situation. There was lots of speculation when that whole thing took place, rumors were running rampant! I remember well, because it was gong on when I ran the first time. What happened was, the mayor at that time appeared to have an axe to grind and was trying to throw a monkey wrench into the system. Collins Construction was attempting to develop an area across the line, but still in the Portland area. In order to build the large size facilities they needed (that has now became Macy's, Olhausen Billiards, Gastite, Petals, etc.)they HAD to have a water supply for restrooms, water fountains etc.. The mayor tried to stop it by saying "Who knows what could go in there in 20 years from now, maybe even a meat processing facility that would use millions of gallons of water" This was completely rediculous! The buldings there now won't use as much water as you and I do in our homes taking showers, washing clothes, washing cars, etc.. The mayor had the whole town in an uproar! IF and that's a big IF a "meat processing plant" decides to locate there, it would have to come back to the council for approval! Not to mention, we extend water, gas, and sewer to contractors everyday for HUGE subdivisions, and Mr. Collins GAVE the city, 120,000.00 for the permission to "hook on", and beared the entire cost! So someone would have to explain to me how this was a bad business decision! Every community has there "big money man" who develops lots of things, who has big impacts on the area, ours just so happens to be Larry Collins. He is not a bad man. He is just a business man, who lives in this community. He isn't going to do something to negatively impact his own home town. He just has his hands in so many projects that we hear his name a lot. I just wish folks wouldn't be jealous of people like that, and that we could see all of the ways this city has positively benefited from him. Sorry if I sound like I'm on a soapbox, I just felt like getting that off my chest! :o)

Jody

Digman....thanks for that explanation....lot of deal makin' goin' on.....huh?

About the dam ... I saw on the news that we were denied because of have to save some little water creatures .... if we dammed up the water, they would die ..... hmmm...better us than those little fish, huh ???

I suspect there is a LOT more to that story, too !

yes. the town council voted to pipe our water to robertson county so the collins construction co. could make another million building a subdivision. i cant recall if mike callis was in office yet, or if he was, how he voted but maybe he could come on and comment and shed some truth on the matter since he and jody are the only 2 that arent too good to blog with us. why do we pump water to another county, knowing we have a frail, limited supply? plain ignorant. i do remember that jerry denning spearheaded this action. wonder what his reward was? thank goodness he didnt get re-elected.

Portland, Tennessee Blog
We hope you will use this blog to exchange ideas to make Portland a better place!

At the risk of getting thrown off the blog....I have to ask....

Does Collins Construction control EVERYTHING about Portland? It seems they do...everytime there is an issue...their name pops up !

Now, the water, too ?

does anybody remember 3 or 4 years ago we gave robertson co. the rights to our water so the collins construction co. could get another million $$ contract?? what kind of sense does that make? one things for sure, we sure need that dam water. oh, i mean water dam.

We're not getting a dam right now, the city is still thinking about appealing the decision by tdec. I think we might have to invade White House to ensure water for the future. Who's with me?

exactly what is the dam issue here? LOL

i dont know aything about that dam issue.
one thing is for sure it is a dam issue.

I'm curious also about the dam issue...
Also, would like to know if anyone has heard when the water restriction will be lifted.

I read some time back about the City Hall moving, but nothing lately. Where will it move to?

I am excited about the Walgreens..they always have awesome day-after-thanksgiving sales and I have drove to Gallatin at 5am for the bargains..now I can just drive down the street! Whoo hoo! :)

Anyone know the proposed opening for the new Walgreens?