Where Does The Water Go?
September 4, 2024
Discover where water goes after you flush in the Greater Nashville area, exploring the sewage system, current models, future updates, and ways citizens can stay informed and involved.
The McCrory Lane Quarry
Proposal to Fill McCrory Lane Quarry for Future Development
For years we have worked to reduce pollution from activities near the Harpeth River.
Proposal for Landfill Withdrawn 10 Years Ago
Over 10 years ago, we worked with state legislators, Metro planning staff, and others when the property owner of the McCrory Lane quarry, located next to the State Scenic Harpeth at the Davidson/Cheatham County line, proposed a construction & debris (C & D) landfill to fill the quarry.
The landfill proposal over 10 years ago was a “red flag” because under the State Scenic Rivers Act landfills are prohibited within 2 miles on either side of the State Scenic sections of the Harpeth in Davidson county. The proposed state legislation to allow the landfill in the quarry was withdrawn, so the C & D landfill was not constructed. The documents for the current project mention draining and filling with dirt for the future use of the filled limestone quarry for future construction and development. The outfall for dewatering of the quarry is proposed to be on the adjacent property.
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Potential Concerns
We are still gathering documents and conferring with experts, government officials, and community leaders. Although we have not finished our work, we do have the following concerns based on the documents submitted to TDEC:
- The quarry owners have not specified how what they propose to fill the quarry with is different from what was proposed to be allowed in the construction & debris (C&D) landfill, which was rejected in 2007. The owners now say it will be filled with clean rock and soil. This is very similar to what is allowed in a C&D landfill, which can take:
a) “… wastes, other than special wastes, resulting from construction, remodeling, repair, and demolition of structures and from road building. Such wastes include but are not limited to bricks, concrete, and other masonry materials, soil, rock and lumber, road spoils, rebar, paving material.”
- There is no plan yet announced on how the quarry operators will ensure that any material used to fill the quarry will remain clean and uncontaminated by chemicals and other materials that may wash into the State Scenic Harpeth River. In 2007, it was established that groundwater, which has already filled up the quarry, moves through the landfill into the Harpeth River. The quarry operators say they want to fill the quarry with rock and dirt from construction project around Nashville. These materials can be contaminated, as is common in these circumstances. Yet, the operators have not stated how they will prevent contaminated materials from being disposed of in the quarry.
- The quarry operators have not stated whether or how they will monitor groundwater down-gradient from the quarry to make sure the filling of the quarry is not adversely impacting the State Scenic Harpeth River.
- The materials supplied do not discuss any of the impacts of the process of filling the quarry. The quarry is very deep and may require years of trucks dumping their loads into the quarry. There is no discussion of how big these trucks will be, how many of them there will be, how intensive peak periods of traffic will be, or over what period of years increased truck traffic can be expected. There is no discussion of which local roads are likely to be impacted, how they are likely to be damaged, or who will pay to monitor and police the truck traffic, or who will pay to repair the roads.
- The quarry operators say that the quarry will ultimately be redeveloped into condominiums, but there is no information about the proposed project or how many condos are being planned, so area residents have no idea how many additional people will live in the area, or the impact on traffic, schools, sewers, or any other local infrastructure. There is no information about how the quarry filling or any final project will fit in with the major planning – the NashvilleNext project – that was done for the Bellevue area.
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