Tennessee: Pipeline around pollutants

COPPERHILL, Tenn. — The latest project in the cleanup of the Copper Basin is a waterline to divert clean water in a creek so that it doesn’t pick up mining pollutants before it flows into the Ocoee River.

Keith Johnson, a project engineer with remediation firm Glenn Springs Holdings Inc., said work has begun on the three-quarter mile, large-bore waterline.

When the work is completed this year, 98 percent of the heavy metals found in Davis Mill Creek — a primary stream through the former mining area — will be removed before the water flows into the Ocoee, project director Frank Russell said.

Mr. Russell said crews in 2004 installed 3,000 feet of 63-inch plastic pipe to divert water from Bell Town Creek to a point in Davis Mill Creek below the primary mining area. But he said tests showed water flowing into the lower area of the creek toward the Ocoee River still was picking up contaminants, mainly heavy metals.

To solve that problem, Glenn Springs will connect 4,000 feet of concrete pipe to the existing plastic line so the Bell Town Creek water can get to the Ocoee without picking up contaminants.

Meanwhile, a dam will be built near where Davis Mill flows into the Ocoee. The Davis Mill water will be pumped upstream to the Cantrell Flats treatment plant before it goes into the Ocoee.

Mr. Russell said the multiphase project will cost more than $4 million and has been approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Project engineer Scott Deal said the concrete pipe can handle 200,000 gallons of water per minute.

“That’s equal to filling three 15- by 30-foot swimming pools,” Mr. Deal said.

Mr. Johnson said each section of concrete pipe is 8 feet long and weighs about 20 tons. The diameter will start at 6 feet and increase to 7 feet as it gets nearer the Ocoee River, he said.

The current project is one of many that have been planned or completed by Glenn Springs Holdings Inc., a division of Occidental Petroleum, as the company works toward eliminating pollution caused by copper mining that began in the early 1800s.

Mining ended in the Copper Basin in 1987, and an environmental study began in 1995 to study problems caused by mining and smelting operations.

Occidental Petroleum acquired the site in a buyout and agreed on a cleanup plan with the EPA.

Since then, Glenn Springs has built water treatment plants and wetlands, removed some polluting products and covered others and planted enough vegetation and trees to have turned some formerly polluted areas into wildlife havens.