Tennessee House fails to protect national treasure in Big South Fork National River

There is a saying in politics  — “whose ox is getting gored”— which  I interpret as who will benefit or suffer if the legislation passes or fails.

During the current session of the Tennessee General Assembly, I followed the efforts of Tennesseans who wanted to stop the installation of a multistate regional landfill in Scott County, where my Terry ancestors have lived since the early 1800s.

I grew up in Oneida, graduated from Oneida High School, and moved with my family to Nashville in 1973. After the move we still had grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins there and visited frequently and I have close friends who I met in the first grade. I hiked around the Big South Fork River in Scott County every time I visited.

Scott County scenery is beautiful and thanks to the efforts of the late U.S. Sen. Howard Baker, a large portion of the area became the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area. Baker was from Huntsville, Tennessee, which is the county seat of Scott County, and appreciated the beauty and natural resources on the Cumberland Plateau and wanted to protect its water and land.

The National Park Service defines the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area as encompassing 125,000 acres of the Cumberland Plateau and protecting the free-flowing Big South Fork of the Cumberland River and its tributaries.

There was much rejoicing in Scott County when the area was designated as a natural recreational area because people would come to the area and spend money. Tourists would make the trip because of the natural beauty and could hike, camp and ride horses in the park.

When Trans Rail Waste Services, LLC announced in 2025 it wanted to clear and start a multistate landfill adjacent to the Big South Fork River, locals appealed to their state lawmakers for help. Sen. Ken Yager and Rep. Kelly Keisling, both Republicans, filed legislation to change the Big South Fork River to a Class II Pastoral River.

Y’all, this proposal passed through the Senate unanimously. That means Republicans and Democrats agreed! How often does that happen?. I thought, hooray the locals will win and I was stunned when the counterpart —House Bill 2202 — did not get a majority vote and failed in the  House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee.

It made me sick and I smelled a mouse. All the committee had to do was pass the bill on to the House, like the Senate had.

Why do I care about this issue? Scott County has seen a lot of change in my lifetime. Coal mining and lumber do not provide the large number of jobs they did in the past and many factories have closed. There are successful locally owned businesses. People depend on tourists to spend their money and this landfill would not only scare tourists away but will also be located across the street from the Winfield Elementary School..

The proposed Trans-Rail landfill will bring waste from many states by train. If the waste leaks into the Big South Fork River it could ruin the river and destroy the park. The Big South Fork will carry the waste to the Cumberland River and guess where those of us who live in Nashville get our water? The Cumberland River.

I got a Master’s Degree in Planning with an emphasis on environmental management from the University of Tennessee  and while I was a student I interned for the Tennessee Valley Authority and spent a lot of time in the Smoky Mountains. I then worked for more than five years in Tennessee State Government with some forward-thinking people who wanted to keep our waters clean and purify the air we breathe. I joined the Sierra Club and wrote my thesis about how critical it was to manage solid and hazardous waste which meant I learned a lot about the operation of landfills.

There was an effort by most of the people I worked with to cooperate with the Environmental Protection Agency, but it was really a process of taking two steps forward for change and one giant step backwards of resistance. I believed then as I do now that access to clean water is a right for all Americans.

Tennesseans who live in rural areas need to pay attention to what happens next for Scott County. The House Committee had the chance to stop an unwanted massive landfill with waste shipped in by train from all over the country and being dumped in Winfield, Tennessee next to Big South Fork.

Tennessee is proud of being a vacation destination and even standard state license plates say ‘TNvacation.com, directing viewers to the state department of tourism. But allowing landfills on scenic waterways and national parks shows how little the state cares about tourists and residents alike.