Public meetings slated to discuss water quality management plans for Red River and Cordell Hull Lake and Barren River watersheds

Nashville, Tenn. – The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation will hold meetings in October to discuss the watershed water quality management plans for the Red River and Cordell Hull and Barren River Watersheds.  The public is invited to attend and provide input about the plans.

Watersheds are areas that drain to a common waterway, such as a stream, lake, wetland or river. Diverse plant and animal species and geological features are linked in these areas. By focusing on the entire watershed, Environment and Conservation seeks to attain the best balance among efforts to control point-source pollution and polluted runoff, protect drinking water and safeguard wetlands and other sensitive natural resources. The Department utilizes water quality management plans as part of its Watershed Management Approach to meet water quality goals and preserve the ecological integrity of Tennessee watersheds.

Under the Watershed Management Approach, the state’s 55 watersheds are divided into five groups.  Each group undergoes a different set of water quality management activities every year in a five-year cycle.  Those activities include planning, monitoring and collecting data, gathering public input and developing water quality improvement strategies.

Environment and Conservation holds public meetings to discuss a watershed’s water quality management plan in the last year of the five-year cycle. These meetings provide water quality assessment summary results and an inventory of point and non-point sources of pollution in a watershed. Information also is shared about activities at the local, state and federal levels to reduce pollution sources. There will be opportunity to discuss water quality and for the public to make suggestions as to how it may be improved in the watershed.

The public meeting for the Red River Watershed will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Oct. 15 at the Springfield Senior Center. The center is located at 601 Locust St. in Springfield.

The public meeting for the Cordell Hull Lake and Barren River Watersheds will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. Oct. 16 at the Smith County Chamber of Commerce Building, located at 939 Upper Ferry Road in Carthage.

For more information about Environment and Conservation’s Watershed Management Approach, visit the Web site at http://tennessee.gov/environment/wpc/watershed/#intro.  The watershed water quality management plan may be viewed at http://www.state.tn.us/environment/wpc/watershed/wsmplans/.