Chattanooga, Hamilton County and the state had no takers Tuesday evening at a public hearing about moving just over three miles of streams and slightly less than an acre of wetlands on the megasite where a new auto plant is planned.
As part of Enterprise South site preparation for a Volkswagen auto assembly plant, Hamilton County is seeking permission from Tennessee’s Water Pollution Control Division to move previously Army-altered streams nearer to their original locations, according to state permit applications.
TO COMMENT
E-mail Dick Urban and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation at richard.urban@state.tn.us
In addition, contractors want to build a 1.65-acre replacement wetlands near the present entrance of the industrial park. The manmade wetlands area will double as a stormwater runoff basin, said Dr. Richard Urban, head of the Water Pollution Division in the Chattanooga field office of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.
But on the day Volkswagen and state officials announced VW’s intention to build an auto plant here to employ 2,000 people, no members of the public attended the hearing.
“The comment period remains open for 10 days,” Dr. Urban said.
The stream and wetlands work has been estimated to cost as much as $5 million, officials said. The cost will be borne by the city and county.
Dr. Urban and Bill Phillips, a consultant stream maker, said the wetlands and stormwater runoff system will create a beautiful parklike addition at the front of the industrial area. But it also will serve the practical purpose of keeping stormwater from flooding homes downstream in bad weather, they said.
Mr. Phillips also is designing the new stream beds for the site, a process he says is harder than it would seem because naturally flowing streams vary in depth, width and bed surfaces.
“It’s going to meander, have riffles and pools and runs,” Mr. Phillips said. “The whole idea is to make it as natural as it would be in nature.”
Dr. Urban said the streams, primarily Poe Creek and its tributaries, were moved from their original sites years ago by the army when TNT was made on the former Volunteer Army Ammunition Plant. The natural streams then largely were replaced with ditches, Dr. Urban said.
Pam Sohn has been reporting or editing Chattanooga news for 25 years. A Walden’s Ridge native, she began her journalism career with a 10-year stint at the Anniston (Ala.) Star. She came to the Chattanooga Times Free Press in 1999 after working at the Chattanooga Times for 14 years. She has been a city editor, Sunday editor, wire editor, projects team leader and assistant lifestyle editor. As a reporter, she also has covered the police, ...
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