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Vulcan asks committee to adopt site-specific sulfate and TDS standards for streams near Lawrence County quarry
Summary
Vulcan Construction Materials petitioned the committee to set site-specific water-quality criteria for sulfate and total dissolved solids in an unnamed tributary, Brushy Creek and Stinnett Creek downstream of its Lawrence County quarry; the Department of Health objected to removing drinking-water use while DEQ staff said they had no objection to the change.
Alan Gates, speaking for Vulcan Construction Materials, told the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee that rainwater accumulating in a decades-old quarry in Lawrence County picks up sulfate and other dissolved minerals and is pumped into a neighboring cattle pond before flowing downstream into Brushy Creek and Stinnett Creek. "Weare here today to ask you to set water quality standards, site specific standards for sulfate, and for TDS," Gates said, explaining that the default ecoregion values reflect the least-disturbed streams and are not representative of the historic conditions in these small, mineralized streams.
Gates said Vulcan received a discharge permit about 10 years ago to pump quarry water and that the company cannot…
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