Four Chattanooga Area Efforts Honored in Stewardship Awards
By Pam Sohn, Chattanooga Times/Free Press, Tenn.
May 31–The Tennessee Aquarium’s work to release more than 60,000 lake sturgeon into the Tennessee River Watershed over the past decade has brought a species once extinct to Tennessee back home — and won a state award.
“We just found out this week that a sturgeon has made it all the way into Kentucky Lake, 550 miles away from the release site,” said Dr. Anna George, director of the Tennessee Aquarium Research Institute. “We’re returning a species that’s been extinct in Tennessee for the past 50 years, and it’s back in our waters and doing well.”
Three other Chattanooga-area groups and individuals — Cleveland State Community College, an Etowah glass-fiber plant and a Niota cattle farmer — are among 14 statewide to receive 2008 Governor’s Environmental Stewardship Awards.
The awards recognize people and groups whose voluntary actions improve or protect the state’s environment and natural resources with initiatives not required by law or regulation, according to Tennessee Environment and Conservation Commissioner Jim Fyke.
“Our environment impacts everything from recreational activities to the health of our communities, and I believe it is important to recognize the people and organizations that work so hard to protect it,” Mr. Fyke said.
Aquatic Resource Preservation award
Tennessee Aquarium Research Institute’s Saving the Sturgeon program is a 25-year commitment that began in 1998, Dr. George said.
Raised from hatchlings in North Georgia, the sturgeon have been released gradually into the French Broad River, a feeder tributary to the Tennessee River just above Knoxville. Aquarium researchers monitor the sturgeon with sonic tags.
Thirty percent of all southeastern fish species listed now are imperiled, she said.
“The sturgeon is part of a larger puzzle of the Tennessee ecosystem,” Dr. George said.
The fish produces commercial caviar and can grow to 150 pounds or more, making it popular with sport fishermen. But it disappeared from the Tennessee River and its tributaries in the 1960s.
Sturgeons are typically very long-lived and do not begin breeding until they are about 20 years old, which means aquarium researchers must wait another decade before they know the complete success of their work , Dr. George said.
Energy Leadership Award
Cleveland State Community College’s new green-building focus is the result of a now-retired professor, Bob Lance, who couldn’t find information about remodeling or building energy efficiency into his home.
Through the work of Mr. Lance and others, the college received $861,000 from the U.S. Department of Labor for new curriculum and classes, workshops and seminars, said Allan Gentry, the new head of the Cleveland State program. The college built on-campus wind turbines to generate their own power on campus, and new core courses include renewable energy, solar panel systems, energy efficient construction and ground-source heat pump technology.
“We thought we should walk the walk and talk the talk,” Mr. Gentry said. “We also partnered with Ocoee region builders to build two Habitat for Humanity houses to higher energy standards. The utility bills for those houses average $50 a month.”
State officials said the school’s enhanced construction technology program resulted in a new certificate, called the Zero Energy Housing Certificate, and exposed more than 6,000 people to energy-efficient construction materials.
Agriculture/Forestry Award
Robert Thompson’s 589-acre, 200-head cattle farm in McMinn County has become known to state officials as the Robert Thompson Conservation Farm.
Mr. Thompson’s property borders Oostanaula Creek, which state records show is impaired because of E. coli pathogens, phosphates and siltation.
To help improve the problems, Mr. Thompson said he received about $30,000 in federal grants and put up about $10,000 of his own money to build at least 4,685 feet of fencing to keep his livestock from reaching to the creek.
The lifelong farmer said he also had to build about 12 alternative water tanks with about 10,000 feet of pipeline.
The effort has improved water quality and the health of his cattle, he said.
“The first year we saw a 20 percent increase in calf weights at sale time,” he said.
Mr. Thompson said the creek is the clearest he’s ever seen it. State officials said because the cattle no longer stir up sediment when they travel over the stream banks to reach water, there is less sediment runoff.
Hazardous Waste Reduction Award
Johns Manville Facility in Etowah, Tenn., makes glass fiber for insulation, employing 250 people and supplying a variety of products, including residential shingles.
In 2007, the McMinn County plant started a waste-reuse effort that reduced the manufacturer’s hazardous waste generation by 79 percent and reduced the overall cost of manufacturing, according to state officials.
The plant’s new glass furnaces have equipment that removes particulates and sulfur dioxide from its waste products. The plant launched a $225,000 engineering project to reuse the rescued material as part of its glass-making recipe, state officials said.
The plant generated 840,820 pounds of material that was shipped off and disposed as a hazardous waste. The plant shipped only 180,720 pounds of hazardous waste for disposal after reuse began in February 2007, said Tisha Calabrese-Benton, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.
To read about award winners from previous years, visit http://www.tn.gov/environment/awards/
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