FTDD Environmental Management

During the past year, the District’s Environmental Management Program continued to serve local governments in a variety of environmental programs and projects. Since 1991, the District has been providing solid waste technical assistance to local governments which includes providing technical assistance to regional solid waste planning boards, grant writing for recycling equipment, waste tire management for local counties and solid waste education programming. Each year, staff work with Greene, Hawkins, Hancock, Northeast Tennessee, and Sullivan County Regional Planning Boards to complete annual solid progress reports. The Northeast Tennessee Solid Waste Planning Region consists of Carter, Johnson, Unicoi and Washington Counties. These reports are submitted to the State and contain the region’s progress toward goals mandated by the Tennessee Solid Waste Management Act of 1991. The main purpose of these Reports is to evaluate each Region’s progress toward the State mandated 25% waste reduction goal. A majority of the Regions in the First Tennessee Development District are currently meeting the 25% waste reduction goal established in 1991. Other highlights of 2005 include:

537,746.10 tons of solid waste disposed in Class I landfills in 2005 (increase of 13,295.41 tons over 2004)

89,534.26 tons of recyclables collected in 2005 (increase of 13,295.41 tons over 2004)

217,597.99 tons of waste was diverted from Class I landfills in 2005 (increase of 16,535.65 tons over 2004)

In 2005, the Director of Environmental Programs assisted Carter, Greene, Sullivan and Washington Counties in submitting Used Oil Collection Equipment Grant Applications Each of these applications was funded for in the following amounts:

Since the Tennessee Solid Waste Management Act of 1991 was established, the District’s communities have received over $8 million in grant funds for various projects and capital equipment. The following table provides a break down of the total amount of funds received by each community. This does not include grants to private businesses for used oil recycling equipment.

Carter County	Greene County	Hancock County	Hawkins County	Johnson County	Sullivan County	Unicoi County	Washington County
$472,378	$650,487	$329,241	$669,407	$355,001	$1,261,589	$250,144	$2,669,964

The District’s Director of Environmental Programs served on the Appalachian Resource Conservation and Development Council, Keep Greene Beautiful and technical advisor to the Recycling Marketing Cooperative for Tennessee (RMCT). RMCT serves as Tennessee’s Office of Cooperative Marketing through and annual grant from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. RMCT has been providing recyclable marketing services for several counties and cities in the First Tennessee Development District for several years. For more information about RMCT’s services, contact the District’s Director of Environmental Programs. In June, the District hosted a Recycling and Waste Reduction Grant workshop for cities and counties interested in applying for 2005-2006 grants. The workshop was held at the District offices and was attended by representatives from 10 communities throughout the District.

During 2004-2005, District staff continued to work with the Boone Watershed Partnership which consists of local, state and federal agencies as well as interested citizens. The mission of the partnership is to “partner with local users, regional, state, and federal entities, educators and others to identify and address water resource issues in the Boone Watershed.” The District received a $20,000 grant from the Tennessee Department of Agriculture to develop a Watershed Restoration Plan for Cash Hollow Creek. Cash Hollow is located in Washington County, is a tributary to Boone Lake, and is listed on the State’s 303(d) list as an impaired stream. The project began in September 2005 and will continue for 12 months. Data from water quality monitoring and land-use surveys will be incorporated into the plan which is a precursor to implementing Best Management Practices in the watershed to improve the water quality of Cash Hollow. Staff are working with the Cash Hollow/Sinking Creek Watershed Alliance and Boone Watershed Partnership to develop and implement the Plan. Also in 2005-2006, the District was awarded a $50,000 grant from the United States Department of Agriculture to develop a training program for solid waste/recycling employees in rural communities. This project will begin in October 2006 and continue until September 2007.

Currently the District’s Environmental Management Program is receiving funding from the following agencies to implement a variety of projects.

The District continues to coordinate the efforts of the Ozone Action Partnership. The goal of the Ozone Action Partnership is to educate local governments, businesses and industries, and the general public about the importance of reducing ozone levels in our region. The Partnership works to inform citizens about the negative impacts of high ozone levels from an economic as well as public health standpoint. The Ozone Action Partnership has been responsible for initiating Ozone Action Days which alert the general public on days when ozone is forecasted to be at or near levels that are of concern to sensitive individuals. This program is part of the Early Action Compact with the Environmental Protection Agency. The Early Action Compact is designed to allow local governments to delay “non-attainment” designation by the EPA for ozone levels. In April 2004, EPA designated Hawkins and Sullivan Counties as non-attainment counties. However these counties were given a deferral on that designation until 2007 due to their participation in the Early Action Compact program. The District along with the Ozone Action Partnership continue to work with local governments in the Compact to implement voluntary local control measures such as the Ozone Action Day Program and open burning bans on Ozone Action Days. The Compact allows these counties to voluntarily implement ozone reduction measures in an effort to reach ozone attainment by December 31, 2007. In March 2006 the Partnership distributed its Annual “Ozzie” Awards at the East Tennessee Regional Environmental Conference, recognizing individuals, organizations or businesses for their efforts to reduce ozone pollution. Recipients of the “Ozzies” included:

Also during the 2005-2006 year, staff once again participated in the Annual Conservation Camp at Sycamore Shoals State Park in Elizabethton. The Camp is a 3 day event for 4^th grade students in Carter, Johnson, and Unicoi Counties. During the past year, the Environmental Management staff assisted with Environmental Reviews for HOME and other community development grants received by member governments. These projects include HOME construction/rehabilitation projects for Mountain City (2), Unicoi County, Eastern Eight Community Development Corporation. Also Environmental Reviews were completed for CDBG projects in the Brownlow Utility District in Johnson County, Town of Mountain City and the City of Elizabethton. Finally, staff completed Environmental Review for LPRF grant applications for Hawkins County, Baileyton, Erwin, Greeneville, Jonesborough and Mountain City.

The District’s Director of Environmental Programs is also a member of the Executive Committee of the East Tennessee Environmental Conference. The Conference is held in March of each year at the Meadowview Conference and Resort Center in Kingsport and is a coordinating effort involving Keep America Beautiful affiliates in Greene County, Bristol, Kingsport and Johnson City, East Tennessee State University and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.

For more information about these and any other environmental programs throughout the region, please feel free to contact:

Carter County	$2,500	Used Oil Collection Tanks
Greene County	$12,500	Used Oil Collection Tanks
Sullivan County	$14,500	Used Oil Collection Tanks and Used Oil Heater
Washington County	$11,500	Used Oil Collection Tanks and Used Oil Heater

Bluff City	Bristol	Church Hill	Elizabethton	Erwin	Greeneville	Johnson City	Jonesborough	Kingsport	Mt. Carmel	Surgoinsville	Tusculum
$3,833	$63,912	$31,150	$12,000	$12,600	$278,460	$378,944	$557,047	$104,648	$3,180	$60,750	$5,800

Agency	Amount	Project
Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation	$22,500	Establish the Upper Watauga Watershed Alliance
United States Department of Agriculture	$50,000	Convenience/Recycling Center Operator Training Program
Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation	$67,773	Solid Waste Management and Technical Assistance Program
Tennessee Department of Agriculture	$20,000	Cash Hollow Watershed Restoration Plan

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