NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Jan. 26, 2023) – A long overdue wastewater project is underway to provide a sanitary upgrade for the National Park Service Blue Heron Mine Area at the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area near Stearns, Kentucky.
The current wastewater system serving the a scenic railway train station, restroom facilities, and concession building has difficulty handling approximately 20,000 gallons per month of septic waste flow during peak visitation.
Blue Heron Mine, also known as Mine 18, is an abandoned coal mining town once operated by the Stearns Coal and Lumber Company. Blue Heron Mine operated from 1937 until December 1962, when operations were no longer profitable. During that time, hundreds of people lived and worked in this isolated community on the banks of the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River.
Greg Bishop, senior Interagency and International Services (IIS) project manager and acting program manager for the Nashville District, said the construction project involves the excavation and removal of approximately 750 cubic yards of shale material and 44 inches of unstable soil at the current wastewater system site, and then replacing it with sandy soil.
“The project will increase the amount of wastewater that the system can manage and exceed the state requirements of overflow tanks, including installing monitoring points and observation wells to detect effluent mounding before it becomes an issue,” Bishop explained.
The project at Blue Heron Mine is expected to be completed by early summer to ensure that public health and safety codes are met and that natural resources are unimpaired.
Kenny Gilreath, chief of Facility Management for the Big South Fork National River Recreation Area, Obed National Wild and Scenic River, and Manhattan Project National Historical Park at Oak Ridge, said the Corps of Engineers originally helped develop the Blue Heron Mine area. However, the septic system and leach field were damaged by flooding in the 1990s. A temporary fix restored the system, but with time and a breakdown of the system, implementing a corrective action and permanent fix is overdue, he said.
Gilreath said he maintains a good working relationship with the Corps of Engineers and said it makes perfect sense to have the Corps manage the construction project.
“I oversee the project management office as well with the three parks, and to do what we are doing now, we would have had to expend a lot more taxpayer dollars for the engineering oversight and inspection of materials,” Gilreath said. “The interagency agreement essentially saved taxpayer dollars, staff time, and accessed construction expertise we don’t have, and the Corps does.”
The Nashville District is not only providing technical assistance to the National Park Service to meet program challenges, but is providing these same services to several other government agencies thanks to a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers program designed to avoid duplication of federal capabilities.
The IIS Program authorizes the Corps of Engineers to provide technical services and manage construction projects for non-Department of Defense federal agencies, state and local governments, tribal nations, private U.S. firms, international organizations, and foreign governments.
The Nashville District is currently providing contract, planning and design support, and construction management services through the IIS Program to the National Park Service, U.S. Department of Energy, and Department of Veterans Affairs, National Cemetery Administration. The Corps of Engineers functions largely as a contract manager using the talents of the private sector to accomplish actual tasks.
“This program benefits our partners because we are in the construction business and have the resources and expertise to efficiently manage these projects and contracts,” Bishop said.
Bishop said the IIS projects currently underway in the Nashville District provide these federal partners with the construction services needed to address their infrastructure requirements, all while saving taxpayer dollars.
There are also two planning initiatives that are part of the IIS Program. The first one involves a partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service related to the operation and testing of a bio-acoustic fish fence on the downstream side of Barkley Lock on the Cumberland River in Grand Rivers, Kentucky.
The BAFF sends a curtain of bubbles, sound and light from the riverbed to the water surface, which deters noise-sensitive Invasive carp from entering the lock chamber. An evaluation is underway on the system’s ability to deter invasive carp from migrating through the navigation lock and further up the Cumberland River.
The second planning initiative involves conducting a Floodplain Management Services Study of Trace Creek in Humphreys County, Tennessee, in partnership with the Natural Resources Conversation Service.
The Nashville District is looking at site-specific data on obstructions to flood flows, flood formation, and timing; flood depths, stages, or floodwater velocities; the extent, duration, and frequency of flooding; information on natural and cultural flood plain resources; and flood loss potentials before and after the use of flood plain management measures.
The study will include alternative measures to mitigate flooding along Trace Creek, which runs through Waverly, Tennessee, the site of a devastating flood in August 2021.
