CLEVELAND, Tenn. — An environmental group has filed a petition challenging the construction-related stormwater permit for the new city airport to be built in the Tasso community.

But members of the Cleveland Municipal Airport Authority learned Friday that the appeal will not interfere with plans to begin site construction soon.

The Knoxville-based Tennessee Clean Water Network and airport critics Erin Fuller and John Moore filed the appeal with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.

The petition alleges the airport “will discharge stormwater containing sediments and pathogens” to two nearby streams, Little Chatata Creek and Rattlesnake Branch. The petitioners argue that TDEC violated its own rules by allowing the creation of a pollution source.

The petition will be heard by the state’s Water Quality Control Board.

But authority attorney William Penny from the Nashville firm Stites & Harbison wrote in a letter to the airport authority that it has “a good and valid permit that is effective in every way” and said there are “no legal impediments” to construction.

See complete story in Saturday's Times Free Press.