The Duck River needs millions of dollars and years to find a balance for a growing need for water in Middle Tennessee with the river’s health, a state official said. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)
It will take hundreds of millions of dollars and several years to get the Duck River — dubbed a scenic treasure by Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee — to balance a growing need for water and the river’s health, Department of Environment and Conservation Commissioner David Salyers said Tuesday.
Lee’s proposed budget includes a total $124.5 million in one-time funds to jumpstart that process.
The Duck River is the most ecologically diverse freshwater river in North America, and has been increasingly taxed by drought and the growing water needs of Middle Tennessee. Lee pledged to include funding to address water supply issues in a fall executive order dedicated to preserving the Duck River and serving the region’s industry and residents.
In his State of the State Address, Lee said his budget earmarked $100 million “to create a regional water supply strategy that will solve this problem once and for all.”
Salyers chairs the Duck River Watershed Planning Partnership, a 19-member advisory group created through Lee’s executive order to provide recommendations to the governor and state lawmakers. The group met for the first time last week.
Gov. Lee signs order to conserve Duck River, a ‘scenic treasure’ at risk
Salyers referred to the proposed $100 million allocation as “incentive money” to encourage the regional utility partnerships in the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation’s budget presentation to the House Finance, Ways and Means Committee Tuesday.
“It will be put out much like (American Rescue Plan Act) funds were, for incentivization around regionalization,” he said. “It could be used (for) a pipeline from the Cumberland or Tennessee River to really solve the problem.”
Lee’s executive order directs the department to “evaluate large-scale engineering projects” for cost and feasibility.
The Tennessee General Assembly would need to approve any plans for such a pipeline, but past attempts to push the idea through the legislature have been unsuccessful.
TDEC’s proposed budget also includes $24.5 million for other projects related to the Duck River. Engineering design and hydraulic modeling of the river would receive $20 million, Salyers said. Remaining funds would be used to facilitate cooperation among water utility districts and communities, and $2 million would go toward matching funds for a $6 million grant the department is seeking for a habitat conservation plan in the upper Duck River watershed.
Collierville Republican Rep. Kevin Vaughan specifically called out the $20 million price tag for design and modeling.
“That’s a lot of studying,” Vaughan said.
Salyers said the water supply strategy for the Duck River will serve as a template for addressing water supply issues elsewhere in the state, including areas on the plateau of Sequatchie Valley.
“The Duck River is not the only place,” he said. “It’s the most imminent of the locations where we have those needs.”
TDEC’s proposed budget also includes funding for three new state parks: Dry Branch, located at the intersection of Perry, Hickman and Lewis counties; a park at the current Cherokee Removal Memorial Park in Meigs County; and what could be the state’s first “blueway” park along the Clinch River in East Tennessee.
The budget seeks funding to fully staff two of the nine new state parks that have already been approved.
An additional $6.2 million would be used to eliminate deferred maintenance in Tennessee’s existing parks and properties. This includes shoreline stabilization at three parks — two in Chattanooga and one at Paris Landing — which have suffered from erosion and disrepair.
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.