Polluted Lakes (Kingsport, Cookeville, Dickson: live in, lawsuits, pollution)

[johnbain]

Hello again everyone.

I hear there are some very polluted lakes in TN linked to cancer and such with class action lawsuits that have been going on for years. That is quite a scary thought to me since I do drink tons of water and I love water sports as do my children. Can anyone fill me in more on this situation. Be honest please and tell me which areas I should stay away from and which areas are safe.

[JMT]

Originally Posted by johnbain

Hello again everyone.

I hear there are some very polluted lakes in TN linked to cancer and such with class action lawsuits that have been going on for years. That is quite a scary thought to me since I do drink tons of water and I love water sports as do my children. Can anyone fill me in more on this situation. Be honest please and tell me which areas I should stay away from and which areas are safe.

What lakes did you hear about? I honestly haven't heard that, although of course I could be wrong.

[2mares]

Nor have I. Our lab does some sub-contracting of water quality for TVA, Corps of Engineers and FWA and I havent heard anything.

[alleycat]

The only thing I've heard like that is the lawsuits against DuPont for their New Johnsonville plant on Kentucky Lake, but I thought that was primarily due to air polution rather than polution of the lake itself.

I'm with JMT on this. I really haven't heard much on this subject (which is not to say there hasn't been lawsuits, just that I don't recall anything in the news media about them).

Do you have a link concerning the lawsuits you mentioned, John?

[shadowwalker]

If you go to the Tennessee Wildlife Agency web site. You can find the sites that they have where they don't recommend eating over a certain amount of fish out of a area for a certain amount of time. Because of the toxic number of chemicals in them. Also there should be a site on the Department of Environmental Quality's web site for the same thing. But remember. I think every state has water flow areas that have contaminants of some kind that is considered toxic. Usually for kids and pregnant women. To some point.

[johnbain]

Holston river Tennessee, and Eastman Plant in Kingsport

[yarddawg]

There are problems with lake pollution in many areas of Tennessee. However, in most cases it won't affect you unless you eat bottom feeding fish species caught from the lakes. In that case your major exposure would be to mercury and PCBs. The TWRA maintains a list of affected lakes and streams and which species are prohibited.

There are also a number of "lakes" scattered through the state which are large man-made ponds originally constructed for industrial purposes or to control mine drainage. Dozens of flooded strip mines also fall into this category. These may be highly contaminated but I doubt anyone is marketing the land surrounding them as residential property. I've had a few "what were you thinking" talks with developers before though, so I'm not going to say it hasn't happened somewhere.

[alleycat]

Originally Posted by johnbain

Holston river Tennessee, and Eastman Plant in Kingsport

That may be why I haven't heard anything much about it here. I live in Nashville.

There has been a big issue here about ground water being contaminated in Dickson County due to a landfill. Apparently the contamination was known by officials but they kept it secret.

[JMT]

Originally Posted by johnbain

Holston river Tennessee, and Eastman Plant in Kingsport

Ah ok, that does make sense. I'm sure Eastman has some strict EPA standards they have to keep, but it's nonetheless a big chemical plant.

The lakes and rivers around Cookeville aren't connected to the Holston or Tennessee rivers, I mean they are downstream, so Cookeville's water supply (Center Hill Lake) isn't contaminated by Eastman. The same can be said for Nashville's water supply.

[johnbain]

cookeville is looking better and better...