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Nashville, TN (March 14, 2016) – Jim Redwine has joined the Harpeth River Watershed Association in a new senior position as Director of the Water Quality Protection and Sustainability Program. Jim has over 30 years of experience as a corporate, executive, and environmental and bankruptcy attorney. Jim’s work includes the General Motors bankruptcy, where he was responsible for all environmental functions in the largest industrial bankruptcy in US history. Involving over 100 sites, Jim achieved the then-largest environmental trust settlement in US history.
“In this new senior position, Jim will lead HRWA’s vision for the State Scenic Harpeth River to become the first complete river system in Tennessee to be entirely restored to meet all water quality standards that are set to protect public health and wildlife,” explains Dorene Bolze, Executive Director of HRWA.
A significant step toward achieving this vision is the collaboration getting underway on a new study of pollution reduction strategies for the entire Harpeth River. As announced in the press statement issued by the TN Department of Environment and Conservation on July 6, 2015:
“The HRWA, SELC [Southern Environmental Law Center], city of Franklin, and TDEC met with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and USGS [US Geological Survey] to begin planning for a new study of the Harpeth River, particularly now that conditions have changed with the removal of the low-head dam. The study, called a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), is a calculation of the maximum amount of a pollutant a waterbody can receive and still meet water quality standards, and an allocation of that load among the various sources of that pollutant. TDEC will lead the new TMDL, with support from EPA and including significant stakeholder input, to look at the entire Harpeth River Watershed.”
One of Redwine’s priorities is to coordinate HRWA’s efforts with this innovative water quality improvement plan as well as focusing on forming partnerships to develop strategies to protect the vital rural landscapes of the Harpeth River and greater Nashville region.
In April 2015, American Rivers named the Harpeth River one of America’s Most Endangered Rivers in 2015 due to its water quality, fish, wildlife and recreational values being threatened by sewage pollution and excessive water withdrawals.
Jim Redwine received the 2011 American Bar Association Award for Excellence in Environmental, Energy, and Resources Stewardship for his work on the General Motors bankruptcy. Before that, Jim worked for twenty years as an attorney and executive in the environmental management industry, where his accomplishments include the largest insured remediation transaction yet closed. Jim received his B.A. magna cum laude from Harvard University and his J.D. from Vanderbilt University.
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About the Harpeth River Watershed Association: Founded in 1999, The Harpeth River Watershed Association (HRWA) is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit, science-based conservation organization dedicated to protecting the State Scenic Harpeth River and clean water in Tennessee. The Harpeth is among the unique freshwater river systems of the Southeast which contain one of the greatest variety of aquatic life in the world. To affect change, HRWA collaborates with landowners, businesses, community, local, state, and federal decision makers and others to put solutions in place to maintain healthy landscapes, reduce pollution, and implement restoration in order to achieve water quality standards set to protect public health and wildlife. The 125 mile-long State Scenic Harpeth River and over 1,000 miles of tributaries flow through both rural landscapes and rapidly developing urban and suburban areas of the greater Nashville region, one of the fastest growing regions of the country. www.harpethriver.org.
Contacts
Dorie Bolze, Executive Director
615-479-0181
doriebolze@harpethriver.org