Displaying items by tag: maryville pike
Infamous South Knoxville Superfund site will soon take first steps on long road to recovery
A sign warns against entry to the Smokey Mountain Smelters Superfund site off Maryville Pike in the Vestal community of Knoxville. Heather Duncan Nelson/Hellbender Press
EPA plans to contain toxic waste and restore waterways; community group will offer guidance
KNOXVILLE — A crowd gathered in the South Knoxville Community Center to hear the Environmental Protection Agency’s long-awaited remediation plan for Smoky Mountain Smelting and its hazardous waste. Others tuned in via the Internet.
The meeting called by Vestal Community Organization took place Feb. 13. The EPA’s presentation and many questions focused on the former Smoky Mountain Smelting site at 1508 Maryville Pike near Montgomery Village Apartments.
Heather Duncan Nelson reported last year for Hellbender Press on the initial cleanup plans.
But citizens this week raised concerns about other contaminated former industrial properties along the same road. Vestal Community Organization plans to hold another meeting at 6 p.m. Feb. 22 to discuss and decide its position on these Maryville Pike properties.
“I was just thrilled and enamored by the way people were listening to the questions and answers,” said Eric Johnson with Vestal Community Organization, adding that he was referring both to the EPA and the citizens.
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The battle of Flenniken Branch
This photo was included in a TDEC report compiled March 11. It shows an excavated stream channel amid extensive grading work at 2306 Maryville Pike.
Developer of Maryville Pike property in South Knox County faces multiple state, county citations over alleged sediment pollution
The rapid growth of South Knox County has expanded far from the perimeters of the center city and extended into more development-rich areas.
One case in point: Significant development is taking place along a once-sleepy section of Maryville Pike between Vestal and Rockford.
There is a new entrance to the expanded I.C. King Park and its dog park and playground. Just south, one of the country’s largest home builders is finishing its Sevier Meadows subdivision.
There is another development that illustrates the growing pains and legacy costs that have prompted the county and Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation to issue a stop-work order and levy multiple fines and citations against the current developer of the old Mayo seed warehouse site.
There are lessons to be learned from a small waterway called Flenniken Branch about the potential impacts of development on aquatic habitats and other public resources — and the ability of the government to protect those resources.
A troubled legacy
Decades of heavy industrial activity left a troubled environmental legacy near the Mount Olive community. Now a new 30-acre construction site is alleged by the state and county to be a significant source of sediment and debris that ultimately end up in the Tennessee River and its tributaries. The state also alleges the contractor buried a stream, and destroyed wetlands at another nearby property.
The Knoxville-based contractor, Kenn Davin, said he is working to correct the violations, but contends the alleged erosion violations are largely the result of runoff from nearby properties, and that the removal of trees from utility rights of way worsened the problem.
To make matters worse, one of those nearby sources of runoff, Davin said, is the so-called Witherspoon property, which was so contaminated by industrial waste the Environmental Protection Agency capped and sealed the site a decade ago.
The property in question is a 28.5-acre parcel at 2306 Maryville Pike, which abuts the Mount Olive Cemetery near Berry Road and was once the site of the D.R. Mayo Seed Co. warehouse.
Mayo sold the property in August 2019 to Florida-based CW Trust. Davin, principal at Knoxville-based contractor Design One, was designated as the site developer.
Over the course of the last 13 months, TDEC’s Department of Water Resources has issued three notices of violation for land disturbances and other impermissible activity at the Maryville Pike property.
The last notice was issued Nov. 20, 2020. Subsequent inspections in January and March noted that Davin was still out of compliance with action steps that had been required by the state.
Davin has not secured the permits required for the significant grading operations on the property, according to the county.
“They have not secured their necessary permits through our department for land disturbance,” said Knox County Stormwater Program Manager Natalie Landry.
Knox County Stormwater Management served a notice of violation for the 2306 Maryville Pike property on Feb. 9, 2021. The developer did not appeal, and a $500 civil penalty was levied.