Scenic Goforth Creek Canyon on Endangered List

Goforth Creek. Credit Jerry Greer, SELC

A tributary of the Ocoee River has been named one of the ten most endangered places in the South by a regional environmental group.

The centerpiece of Goforth Creek Canyon is a set of waterfalls at the spot where the creek empties into the Ocoee, near one of the river’s most popular courses for whitewater rafting.

The Southern Environmental Law Center says the scenic area could be “permanently damaged” if the state goes forward with a project to improve the main highway along the Ocoee.

The Tennessee Department of Transportation calls its Corridor K plan a necessary upgrade to highway 64, which officials say is too windy, narrow and susceptible to rock slides.

The SELC contends there’s no need to widen the highway or reroute a 20-mile section through the Cherokee National Forest. The group contends it would be enough to upgrade particular portions of the road and divert large trucks during the tourist season.

The state is due to release a statement on the potential environmental impact of Corridor K sometime this summer.

From the SELC:

 

The following endangered areas were chosen from among hundreds of special places that SELC is defending through its law and policy work in the six states of Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama.

· Talladega National Forest, Alabama: Pressure to allow fracking on 43,000 acres of the Talladega National Forest risks drinking water supplies for downstream communities and would bring industrial operations into beloved camping and hiking areas and sensitive wildlife habitat.

· Metro Atlanta’s Water Supply: Plans for multiple unnecessary reservoirs in the metro Atlanta area threaten water supplies for downstream communities, numerous headwater streams and aquatic ecosystems.

· Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, North Carolina: Plans to widen U.S. 64 would destroy 300 acres of valuable wetlands and habitat for the last wild population of red wolves, a federally endangered species.

· Cape Fear Basin, North Carolina: A massive cement plant proposed for a site near Wilmington would destroy 1,000 acres of wetlands, add unsafe levels of mercury to local waters, and increase air pollution.

· Courthouse Creek, North Carolina: A proposed timber sale in the viewshed of the Blue Ridge Parkway near Asheville threatens 472 acres of sensitive forest, a popular recreation destination, trout streams, and local tourism.

· Waccamaw River, South Carolina: Two unlined coal ash ponds near Myrtle Beach are contaminating groundwater with arsenic at up to 300 times the state standard, which flows into the Waccamaw River upstream of drinking water supplies and a national wildlife refuge.

· Goforth Creek Canyon, Tennessee: A scenic spot on the Ocoee Scenic Byway will be permanently damaged if the state builds a new and unnecessary highway through the Cherokee National Forest along a route known as Corridor K.

· Virginia and Tennessee’s Mountains: Mountaintop removal continues to threaten forests, streams, wildlife, and communities across Southern Appalachia, including a new project masquerading as a highway called the Coalfields Expressway.

· Charlottesville, Virginia: Despite more cost-effective, less damaging alternatives and strong public opposition, a $244 million proposed bypass would leave a permanent scar on one of the South’s most special communities.

· Southside, Virginia: An intense, ongoing push to lift Virginia’s longstanding ban on uranium mining threatens the health of the Roanoke River Basin, which supplies drinking water for more than 1 million people.