Despite an unusual plea, Tennessee lawmakers are refusing to get involved in the dispute over a proposed limestone quarry near Old Hickory Dam, voting instead Tuesday to leave the issue to federal authorities.
The decision came over the objections of no less than Congressman Jim Cooper.
The Nashville Democrat came down to the state legislature to testify against the quarry project and in favor of
House Bill 2292, a measure from Davidson County legislators that would have had the effect of blocking it.
Cooper says Old Hickory Dam is already aging, and blasting next to it could have the cumulative effect of weakening the soil around it. That would raise the chances of a dam collapse even higher, posing a potential $2 billion risk to Nashville and other communities downstream.
“The issue here is one proposed quarry owner versus the tens of thousands of private citizens whose homes and small businesses are located on or near the Cumberland River. That’s the issue here.”
But engineers representing the quarry owner, Industrial Land Developers LLC, say the dam was built to withstand shocks more substantial than those from quarry blasts. They point to projects near dams in other parts of the country.
They note that the Army Corps of Engineers, which runs the dam, isn’t objecting to the quarry proposal.
That was enough to convince Andy Holt, R-Dresden. He says billions of tons of soil will separate the quarry from the dam, enough to buffer any blasts.
“You know all I’m hearing is, ‘This could happen, this could happen, this could happen.’ And that’s fine. I recognize a lot of things can happen,” he says. “But I assume that risk because that’s a part of life.”
Holt says unless Cooper and other opponents can prove there’s a risk, the state legislature has an obligation to let the quarry’s owners develop it as they see fit.
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