Tennessee Conservation Voters, a coalition of over 20 environmental organizations, opposes passage of SB 631/HB 1615

Tennessee Conservation Voters, a coalition of over 20 environmental organizations, opposes passage of SB 631/HB 1615. The Water Use Coalition and the Department of Environment & Conservation worked for many weeks to create a compromise amendment to the original bill. However, the environmental community and citizens with no financial interest were excluded from this process. This bill is the most significant piece of water legislation to be considered by the General Assembly this year, and should be a balance between developers/other business and public interests. Our objections to the compromise amendment include:

Determinations made by qualified hydrologic professionals ‘shall be presumed to be correct’. In effect this bill gives away in some cases the state’s right and duty to make principled decisions on water degradation issues to the paid professionals of the developer. The amendment provides a vague description of who could become a qualified hydrologic professional. We question the expertise of someone who could hold a bachelor’s degree in engineering or related sciences to make highly scientific and technical findings. We also believe that the Department’s authority to protect the waters of our state will be compromised by the preferential inclusion of a 3^rd party.

TDEC Commissioner will only have 30 days to question the determination that has been made by the developer’s professional “hydrologist”. The Commissioner will be required to respond in a highly restrictive time frame taxing the time and resources of the Department. TDEC should be expected to make timely responses, but this will create a burden on the department’s ability to be fair and complete.

The amendment doesn’t address the process of public appeal. It is unclear how other interested parties might be given notice of a decision, much less given the right of appeal. So a developer could appeal the department’s denial but a citizen or neighbor of a developer could not. The overall interest of the public should be the deciding factor in law making. Under this bill as mended, the public interest would not be paramount.