You heard it here...errr....second

In late June, Councilmembers Mike Jameson, Jason Holleman and I would like to swim across the Cumberland River to demonstrate what a beautiful and clean water source it is and to draw attention to the need for development that fully integrates this valuable resource into our community. Right now, we have committments from Scott Potter, Director of Metro Water Services, Sonia Harvat, Public Information Officer for Water Services, Tom Cross, Attorney for Metro Legal, Toby Compton, Legislative Director for the Office of Mayor Karl Dean and Margaret Holleman, attorney for Metro Health to make the crossing with us. Butch Bryant of Metro Water Services has agreed to man the boat in the middle of the river to make sure we don't drown or get hit by a barge.

This idea started as a joke. Mike Jameson apparently had planned to swim the Cumberland in honor of his 40th birthday many years ago but never got around to it. The idea regrew legs on Wednesday afternooon when the EPA, in an effort to get credit for 20 years of work by Metro Water, issued a press release that was inaccurate in several key respects about a recent legal settlement between Metro, the EPA and the Department of Justice. Specifically, they claimed that Metro Water had been pouring 200 million gallons of raw sewage into the Cumberland each year. The truth is - and we all know what the truth is because we have to write it down and report it to the EPA - that we had overflows of raw sewage totaling 4.2 million gallons so far in 2007. In 1989, that number was 2.3 BILLION with a B gallons. If that ain't progress, I don't know what is.

The EPA also implied that they were making Nashville pay for $300-400 in sewer infrastructure improvements. Nowhere in the legal agreement does it say that we are required to spend that kind of money. The truth is we spend that amount every 10 years or so ANYWAY. That is what it costs to take care of our sewer infrastructure. The EPA is requiring us to spend about $3.08 million for certain improvements mostly related to making sewer available to septic users.

So, after getting this press release, I got fired up. Mike Jameson agreed it was time to show the EPA and the Department of Justice we didn't need no stickin' Consent Decree to keep our water clean. Sonia Harvat has agreed to help with organizing some of the logistics and hopefully we'll get some help from Parks and a few other organizations. We have a few details to work out and I will keep you posted.

You would have heard it here first but Michael Cass from The Tennessean called me this afternoon while I was in a fit of laughter over some trash talk that was traveling between Jason Holleman and Tom Cross. I was forced to explain myself and so this story made it to Michael's blog first. Which is just fine. Michael can scoop me any day.

Update: Councilmen Carter Todd and Sean McGuire have agreed to join the swim. Councilman Phil Claiborne has agreed to assist with mid-river safety operations. Councilman Randy Foster has agreed to provide shore support by writing all the jokes. (A sample of Randy's wit: Q: What do you call 5 Councilmembers in the Cumberland River? A: A good start.)

Update 2: Paul Davis, Head of Water Pollution Control at TDEC is also on board...or rather over board as the case may be.