Meeting scheduled to address concerns about Collins River

This meeting is the second in a series of six to eight meetings the compact will be holding in the Collins River Watershed to educate citizens on issues that were brought up in previously held focus groups and from feedback forms. The program for this meeting will discuss erosion and sedimentation of rivers and streams, and how building and development affect erosion and sediment.

Sediment (dirt) is the biggest pollutant in the Cumberland River Basin. Learn about ways dirt affects rivers and streams, and what citizens can do about it.

Working in a non-confrontational manner, the Cumberland River Compact is a non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing water quality in the Cumberland River and its tributaries through education and by promoting cooperation between citizens, businesses, and agencies in Kentucky and Tennessee, according to Phil Armor, the watershed committee chair.

Since the Cumberland River Basin is 18,000 square miles (the size of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and two Rhode Islands), the compact decided that working one watershed at a time, with citizen support, would be most effective. The compact has successfully completed this educational process in six other watersheds, the Harpeth, Red, Middle Cumberland, Caney Fork, Stones, and Old Hickory. All of these watersheds now have a local watershed group working for better water quality.

?A watershed is an area of land through which all water ? like rain, rivers, and streams, drains into a single point,? Armor said. ?The Collins River Watershed, the area we are currently focused on, includes parts of Warren, Grundy, Coffee and Cannon counties.?

For more information or to get on the mailing list for future monthly meetings, contact Faye at 615-469-5962, e-mail [email protected], or visit www.cumberlandrivercompact.org.