A bill to designate a stretch of the Duck River in Maury County a “scenic waterway” advanced in the Tennessee legislature Tuesday — a measure that may come into play with local efforts to fight a for-profit mega trash complex along its banks.
The measure by Rep. Scott Cepicky, R-Culleoka, and Sen. Joey Hensley, R-Hoenwald, would designate a portion of the Duck in western Maury County a Class II scenic waterway, a category intended to protect river quality as well as vistas, shorelines and adjacent lands.
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The Duck has long been recognized as one of the most biodiverse in the world, a pristine river used for recreation and a critical source of drinking water, Cepicky told lawmakers on the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday.
“But it did not get that way — and it was not that way before,” he said. “We had major industry along that river that polluted it really bad, and it’s taken a long time to get the river back to the way it was.”