Water wars: groups challenge ‘unsustainable’ withdrawals from Duck River

Editors note: This story was updated with comment from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation provided after publication.

When Gov. Bill Lee announced the state had lured a General Motors lithium battery supplier to Spring Hill three years ago, it was his largest economic announcement to date:

A $2.6 billion corporate investment; 1,300 new jobs; a major stepstone along Tennessee’s path to become an EV hub — helped along by a then-record $46,000 per job in taxpayer incentives.

The factory deal’s less conspicuous specs — its continuous need for 1.4 million gallons of water per day — is now figuring in a larger battle pitting citizens and conservation groups against state environmental regulators.

Last month, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) granted permission to Columbia Power and Water Systems —which pumps water to the new Ultium Cells plant — to increase its current withdrawals from the Duck River by 60%.

It’s one of eight water companies along the Duck River seeking to dramatically increase water draws to meet rising demands for water in the rapidly growing five-county region southwest of Nashville.

Should the state approve all eight requests, up to 73 million gallons will be drained daily from Duck — one third more than today.

Local residents and conservation groups say that’s unsustainable.

“We’re very, very concerned that development and corporate interests have just taken over,” said Doug Jones, a retired attorney whose family has owned farmland along the Duck for more than a century.

Industries like the lithium plant that are coming to the region are “like monsters, like dragons. We can’t quench them,” he said.

Jones now helps lead Hickman for the Duck, a nonprofit formed among neighbors to wage a legal challenge against TDEC over its approval of Columbia Power and Water’s new permit.

“We’re not fighting Columbia Power,” Jones said. “It’s the governor’s economic development people. It’s these people in suits. They just say ‘yes.’”

Now 72, he has seen the water levels dip alarmingly during his lifetime as droughts have occurred with greater frequency. A sandbar used for family gatherings has extended further out into the river so “you can almost walk all the way across and not get your ankles wet sometimes.”

“Can you imagine how bad it’s going to get if they take more out?” he said.

‘We don’t want to misappropriate water’

Randy Head, general manager for the Bedford County Utility District, said his small water company is trying to keep up with a growth spurt in rural parts of the county seeing more residential and business customers as growth spills outside the limits of Shelbyville, the county seat.

A proliferation of poultry farms in the area has also placed greater demands on water resources, he said.

“We’re not seeking to grow and use more water, but we’re simply required to provide water for development occurring in this area,” Head said.

TDEC last month approved a permit for the utility to increase its water withdrawals from the Duck River from 1 million gallons-per-day to just over 4 million gallons each day.

The permit is now the subject of a legal challenge by the Tennessee Wildlife Federation, which has accused TDEC of poor oversight of the Duck in issuing permits, including a provision that allows utility companies to waste up to 25% of the water they draw through leaky pipes or other accidental discharges.

Head said that wasn’t something the utility company asked for; TDEC set the waste water rate. But he stressed utility companies do not seek to intentionally waste water.

“We don’t want to lose 25%, he said. “We’re not losing 25% now. We find it quite offensive that anyone is implying we want that. We don’t want to misappropriate water.”

“I want to protect the river, too,” Head said. “We’re not in economic development, but economic development has come to us and we’re tasked with providing water for everyone in this district.”

Legal challenges

The Tennessee Wildlife Federation is also challenging TDEC’s permits to Columbia Water and Power and the Duck River Utility Commission, along with Bedford County.

The challenge accuses TDEC of assuming a “lax approach to protecting the Duck River” and claims that state environmental regulators have ignored long-term consequences for a river that is both prized for its beauty and biodiversity and also serves as the only source of drinking water for a quarter of a million people in the region.

“There’s a significant threat that if people take too much water from the river during drought, we will cause the ecosystems in this incredibly thriving river to collapse,” said George Nolan, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center who represents the Tennessee Wildlife Federation.

“It’s the backbone of the local recreational economy and, for many reasons, it’s worthy of protection and these permits don’t really do anything other than kick the can down the road as far as drought management and water planning is concerned.”

The Tennessee Wildlife Federation has questioned details in the permit allowing the utility companies to not only increase water withdrawal, but to leak as much of 25% of the water they draw – even in times of drought. Collectively the eight permits would allow as much as 18 million gallons of water per day to be wasted.

Some water waste is inevitable as pipes leak or break, but Nolan noted that Columbia Power and Water currently maintains a water loss rate of about 12%.

TDEC has also directed the utility companies to follow a decade-old drought plan developed by the Duck River Development Agency that sets benchmarks for triggering water conservation measures and releasing water from the Normandy Reservoir to sustain the river’s levels.

Duck River among the ‘most endangered’ in the nation

The Tennessee Wildlife Federation is challenging that component, too, saying the plan is outdated and the agency, which is funded by utility companies and has no mandate to seek public input on drought management plans, should not setting guidelines.

“We are challenging the fact that TDEC is illegally attempting to delegate its responsibility to enforce our water quality laws to an entity that is not set up for that purpose and is being paid for by the industry that’s being regulated,” Nolan said.

In a comment provided Monday, after publication, TDEC noted it has held a series of stakeholder and public meetings since 2020 as part of the permitting process and will continue to meet with stakeholders, be responsive to the public’s interest in the Duck River, and utilize the checks and balances within our regulatory authority to ensure this precious resource remains protected and utilized appropriately.”

“TDEC has long recognized the high value of the Duck River and has been taking proactive measures to ensure its protection and its use is balanced between natural resource protection, wildlife conservation, outdoor recreation, and the needs of Tennesseans as communities continue to experience growth,” the statement said. TDEC cited pending litigation in limiting further comment.

‘Visionaries developing plans’

Doug Murphy, executive director of the Duck River Agency, pushed back against concerns that permits were allowing too much water to be withdrawn from the river at one time.

Permits outline peak-day demands, making it unlikely that on any given day all 73 million gallons of water be withdrawn by all eight utility companies should TDEC approve each of their requests, Murphy said.

“The information I’m seeing out there is that these water systems are going to drain the river and take 70-plus million gallons out every day, but that’s not true,” Murphy said “For all the water systems to hit the same peak day at the same time would be some crazy odds.”

Treated wastewater is also routinely returned to the river, he said, helping keep levels stable.

The agency is currently updating a regional river plan to account for the unanticipated growth in the region over the past two years, he said. The plan will include a drought management component that water utilities granted the new permits will be required to follow.

The plan will offer guidance but, he said, “we don’t have the authority over this. All we are is visionaries developing plans of how to protect the Duck River and meet growth needs. The regulatory agencies will have to decide if that’s doable.”

Already low

The river is already low for this time of year, John McEwen said as he skipped rocks from a rocky beach behind the 1860s-era home his forebears built in Hickman County.

McEwan, a real estate broker, grew up skipping rocks on the same stretch where he stood. He said he was troubled by the changes he had already seen.

At its shallowest bordering his family’s property the river traditionally dipped to three or four feet deep – areas that now stood less than two feet.

The real estate market has been extremely healthy, in large part because people want to own property on or near the Duck River, he said.

“I just wish there was more concern for the diminishing quality of this river, which is the main reason people come here,” he said. “Eliminating that resource to fuel growth is just short-sighted.”

An earlier version of this story included an incorrect spelling of property owner John McEwen’s name. We apologize for the error.