Gov. Bill Lee wanted $100M for Duck River projects. Lawmakers approved $65M

The Tennessee General Assembly’s 2026 budget trimmed $35 million from a funding bucket intended to support ongoing efforts to preserve North America’s most ecologically diverse freshwater river while serving the growing Middle Tennessee population’s water needs.

The Duck River, a “scenic treasure” according to Gov. Bill Lee, provides water to an estimated 250,000 Middle Tennessee residents. Its water levels reached concerning lows in 2025, and an increase in dead mussels signaled the river’s health is in peril, scientists say.

Lee’s budget proposal originally earmarked $100 million “to create a regional water supply strategy that will solve this problem once and for all,” he said in his 2025 State of the State Address.

The $59.8 billion budget approved by the Tennessee General Assembly on Wednesday allocated $65 million to projects involving the river. House Majority Leader William Lamberth, a Sumner County Republican, said in a Thursday news conference that when viewed “as a whole, 98% plus of the budget was almost exactly what the governor proposed.”

TDEC: $100M Duck River budget ask could be used toward regional Tennessee River pipeline

Rep. Jody Barrett, a Dickson Republican, represents Hickman County, which is bisected by the Duck River. While his constituents’ concerns about the river are mostly environmental for now, residents of neighboring Maury County are looking toward the Duck as a “saving grace” for water shortages, he said.

“Certainly $35 million is going to have some practical impact. As far as how that money was going to be used, I’m not exactly sure, so I don’t know that it will be a considerable immediate impact,” Barrett said. “But obviously it’s an emergency situation, depending upon where you are along the river.”

Barrett said he understands part of the reasoning behind the funding redirect was a lack of specificity on how the funding will be used.

Lee’s November executive order to conserve the Duck River tasks the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) to “evaluate large-scale engineering projects” for cost and feasibility.

TDEC Commissioner David Salyers in March referred to the proposed $100 million as “incentive money” to encourage partnerships among regional utilities. 

Salyers chairs the 19-member advisory group created by Lee to make recommendations to the governor and state lawmakers. He told lawmakers last month that the funding could be put toward a potential pipeline from the Cumberland or Tennessee rivers to “really solve the problem” of drinking water access. 

But Salyers also acknowledged that a full solution will likely require hundreds of millions of dollars over the course of several years.

“While we are disappointed by the reduction in funding by $35 million for the Duck River projects, we recognize that conservation requires sustained commitment over time, not just in moments of opportunity,” Harpeth Conservancy CEO Grace Stranch, also a member of the governor’s advisory group, wrote in an email to Tennessee Lookout. “I am honored to serve on the Duck River Planning Partnership and look forward to working with partners across the region to identify sustainable, collaborative solutions for protecting one of Tennessee’s most vital natural resources.”