Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation

Grants of Mill Ridge Park, we really began in collaboration with Metro Parks and so many community partners, including the Nashville Food Project, piloting this idea years before the park opened in a way of introducing it to more community members, but also as a way of hearing from community members if indeed this is what we as a community needed and wanted.

And so that $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Interior, which will be administered by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, It's revenues that the U.S. Department of Interior allocates to very special initiatives really throughout the country.

And so for Nashville and Mill Ridge Park especially to be the recipient of that, it's an incredible honor.

But this wouldn't have happened.

The ruling, issued September fourth by Chief US District Judge William Campbell, rejected the city's request to throw out a citizen-led lawsuit accusing its sewage facility of polluting waterways.

Spring Hill argued that Tennessee Riverkeeper's suit should be dismissed because the city had already settled on an agreement with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.

The judge sided against the city, stating that the court could not determine if the twenty twenty-five consent order between Spring Hill and the state regulators resolved the same violation alleged in the case.

In the twenty twenty-five consent order, TDEC outlined twenty-nine effluent violations that were self-reported by the city.

Steering committee, yeah.

So, I mean, all of your major regulatory agencies, things like TWA, TDEC, TVA, all those groups are going to be involved.

All your major universities usually have some representation.

Okay.

So I'm the natural areas program manager.

A lot of people know TDEC from our beautiful state parks.

Our natural areas kind of function as a preserve system, more focused on species conservation and natural communities, kind of being the museum of everything Tennessee has to offer in terms of biodiversity.

Very cool.

And we made the announcement that we're going to reintroduce the red-cockaded woodpecker.

I mean, what's really important about this is that it's a true partnership effort.

And, you know, with state parks, you know, TDEC, state parks, Tennessee Natural Areas, TWRA, United States Fish and Wildlife Service.

And so we all are really coming together.

Thanks for having, having me to talk about some of the projects we've got going on.

Uh, my name is Sam, and I work for the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.

Uh, that's the big state department here in Tennessee that covers clean air, clean water, uh, but also our state park system and the state natural areas program, which is where I work.

So I'm involved with, uh, managing, uh, 88 state natural areas across the state that represent kinda the best that Tennessee has to offer biologically, whether that be great intact natural communities, rare species protection, both plants and animals, as well as great places to do some passive outdoor recreation.

That said, Tennessee is at the start of a new round of goal setting and strategizing about trash.

The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation is due to publish a new 10-year roadmap for handling solid waste soon.

The deadline for that plan is this November.

The next year, they'll publish more specific rules and start awarding grants to cities and counties.

There were some questions of CPWS Vice President Matt Wheeler.

Murray County Mayor Sheila Butt spoke about the concerns that she had about water system customers not having a say in city set rates, said April Grippo, the Director of Water Resources for the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, recounting the meeting.

We also heard a presentation from a contractor called WFX, which has been for some months working on a regionalization study.

WFX's representative stated that he had not gone into the study pursuing a water source other than this intake.