Piedmont’s cleanup effort left plant-life scarce along the banks of Otter Creek. Credit Leah Terry / WPLN
Piedmont Natural Gas is having to go to great lengths restoring plant life in Radnor Lake State Park after a slurry of water and clay spilled from a horizontal drilling operation. The company is laying down a new, larger pipeline that happens to cut through one of the most protected sites in the state.
The clean up around Otter Creek – which flows into Radnor Lake – meant trampling surrounding plants and creating a mud pit. Tennessee’s Department of Environment and Conservation issued a memo with directions for restoring the vegetation, to which Piedmont has agreed.
One of the steps is to stabilize the soil by lining the muddy areas with dead vegetation. While hay would normally be used to cover the ground, Piedmont is expected to lay down exotic plant species taken from the nearby woods. This is meant to have two benefits – the removal of non-native species from the park while also keeping hayseed from getting into the ecosystem.
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