The city of Chattanooga’s water quality program could have set standards so high that it is impossible to maintain, Mayor Ron Littlefield said today.
“We’ve been driving a Cadillac,” he said. “Now it’s time for a Ford or a Chevy.”
The city received its water quality, or stormwater, permit in 1996. As one of the first in Tennessee to establish its program, Chattanooga negotiated its own terms, state officials said.
Mr. Littlefield said today those terms could be insurmountable.
“We have created for ourselves a work program that is impossible to keep up,” Mr. Littlefield said.
He made his comments during the meeting of the City Council’s independent committee on water quality fees.
For more information, read tomorrow’s edition of the Chattanooga Times Free Press.