Dr. JoAnn Burkholder, PhD, Professor and Director, North Carolina State University Center for Applied Aquatic Ecology, and a leading national expert on aquatic algae, said in November 2016 that:
“The WRF [Franklin sewer plant] discharge dominates not only the river flow, but also the N[itrogen] and P[hosphorus] entering the river during low-flow periods, based on…City of Franklin river monitoring data and effluent data in monthly reports to TDEC…
High biomass of algae, which are fueled by the excessive nutrients and organic matter in the treated effluent, [also] cause or contribute to low DO [Dissolved Oxygen] in violation of the state standard.
[Under t]he draft permit … both N and P supplies will still be extreme in comparison to what the natural algal assemblage needs. The … high N and P supplies, added in unhealthy proportions, will increasingly encourage noxious algal overgrowth when other conditions … are conducive ….” The shift is so extreme that the river has a “sewage signature”….
[I]t is the excess of N and P loads that is at issue in present-day waters….In the Harpeth River…managers’ mistaken view that N rather than P is “limiting algal growth” is analogous to the following situation: A man sits down to have dinner at a restaurant. The server apologetically informs the man that 200 steaks are available for him to eat, but only 150 potatoes. Which will the man run out of first, steaks or potatoes? This question is nonsensical. Obviously, one person cannot consume 200 steaks or 150 potatoes at a dinner – the supplies of each are so high that they are at saturating (non-limiting) levels.”
Yet, TDEC has designed the draft permit for the WRF … based on the irrational premise that “N is limiting” in the Harpeth River. The draft permit reflects no understanding by the writers of the critical importance of N:P stoichiometric balance in aquatic ecosystems, or of the fact that N:P ratios can only be used to interpret nutrient limitation when N or P are in limited supply (that is, limitation should only be invoked when something is limiting).”
To read these comments by Dr. Burkholder, click here.