The Nolichucky Needs Your Voice NOW
From a post by Dennis Ashford on the club’s Facebook Page
I wanted to share an update about the ongoing mining of the Nolichucky River Gorge by CSX and its contractors regarding permits and oversight.
There are hundreds of workers in and out of the gorge, which is public land, with ZERO documentation or permitting from either TN or NC (except for an ARAP from TDEC meant for minor repairs, which CSX is grossly violating). The regulatory agencies in charge of overseeing this work, the Army Corps of Engineers (Nashville or Wilmington districts), TDEC, NC DEQ, and the National Forest Service (Appalachian District) have utterly and embarrassingly failed this entire situation. Their failure to put proper permits in place have given CSX and its contractor, ZA Construction, free reign to destroy the Nolichucky River. One worker has died and two are in critical condition because of this UNDOCUMENTED work on public lands.
We have tried every logical approach to remedy their failures and reach compromises. We continue to be ignored, and the daily destruction continues in the gorge. At this point, it is time to flood these agencies with calls, emails, and even knocking on their doors to get them to simply do their job! CSX is moving fast up the gorge and have already destroyed ~3 miles of river up from Chestoa and is continuing to do so on the NC side now.
Here is a short list of contacts it is time to bombard:
Army Corps of Engineers, NC:
Amanda Fuemmeler, Asheville Field Office Chief
Amanda.Jones@usace.army.mil
828.271.7980
NC DEQ:
Andrew Moore
Andrew.w.moore@deq.nc.gov
Amy Annino
amy.annino@deq.nc.gov
828-296-4500
Army Corps TN:
Casey.h.ehorn@usace.army.mil
TDEC:
Dane Cutshaw TDEC EPA Manager
Dane.Cutshaw@TN.gov
423-483-0670
Copy these on EPA/TDEC emails:
Wade.Murphy@tn.gov
Richard.Cochran@tn.gov
Jonathon.Burr@tn.gov
Chris.Rhodes@tn.gov
Franklin.Colyer@tn.gov
tdec.johnsoncity.efo@tn.gov
Ask.Tdec@tn.gov