A Congressman, a state representative and a Metro councilman step onto a dam.
This is not the beginning of a joke.
The trio of U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, state Rep. Bill Beck and Councilman Larry Hagar stands atop the concrete bulwark of Old Hickory Dam, roughly 11.5 miles northeast of downtown Nashville, on a clear October afternoon. They watch as water fills the lock chamber, lifting a boat some 60 feet from the river below the dam and delivering it to the lake on the other side.
It’s almost impossible not to be awed by the scale of the edifice, built in the early 1950s. And yet the musty Cumberland River laps against romantic notions of great civic projects. The sunlight shimmering on the water between the massive concrete walls is offset by the familiar, faintly fetid river smell. A dead duck floats in the rising water.
Like this part of town and the main road that runs through it, Old Hickory Dam is named after Andrew Jackson, whose 640-acre plantation, The Hermitage, is about 13 miles away. Jackson got the nickname because his troops said he was “tough as old hickory.” And if the Good Lord’s willing and the creek don’t rise, the dam named in his honor is tougher still.
But is it tough enough to withstand dynamite blasts nearby? That’s the question. A limestone quarry has been proposed on 141 acres of property adjacent to Old Hickory Dam. Neighbors want it stopped for a variety of reasons. The lawmakers are standing on one.
If none of the three legislators is successful in stopping the project, the quarry will eventually begin blasting deep in the ground, within eyesight of where they’re standing today. Engineers say the half-century-old dam was built to sustain shocks far greater than a mere TNT pop-and-boom. They see no threat from the quarry.
Neighbors and legislators aren’t so sure. In recent weeks, driven by what he considers a looming threat, Cooper has made it his mission to jog local residents’ memories about what a devastating flood looks like. It’s not just the one dam that has the Nashville congressman concerned; it’s the chain of aging dams that includes Old Hickory — along with two dams that have been classified among the nation’s riskiest.
Each lawmaker here is fighting the quarry in his own way. At the state level, Beck has been leaning on the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation to scrutinize the proposal. Republican Rep. Steve Dickerson, who represents this area in the state Senate, has been involved as well.
At the local level, Hagar filed a Metro Council bill in August that would restrict how close a quarry can be to a home, park or school. The bill stalled before it could come to a final vote, but he refiled earlier this month. It awaits two more readings, as well as a possible legal challenge.
Old Hickory neighbors have raised objections on a variety of fronts. They range from the presence of bald eagles nearby to the possible effects a quarry could have on the value and structural integrity of their homes. In many cases, those homes are older than the dam.
It’s the dam, however, that’s (continue reading at Nashville Scene)