News

More than 260 people signed on to Sound Rivers’ Blounts Creek petition this week, asking for changes to a permit that will allow up to 12 million gallons of wastewater be discharged into the headwaters of a beloved creek.

Sound Rivers and the Blounts Creek community have been fighting the permit to discharge wastewater from a 649-acre limestone mine into Blounts Creek for more than a decade because that much fresh water dumped into a brackish creek — designated by the state as a nursery for saltwater species — will permanently change the creek, and the aquatic life it supports.

Sound Rivers specified the following changes be made to the draft permit: include language to make sure the creek is monitored; impacts of the discharge to the creek be made transparent; ensure permit conditions are enforceable; and include criteria that would determine when the permit can be reopened and modified when impacts to the creek become clear.

Signers of the petition included Sound Rivers’ members, Blounts Creek community members and other stakeholders. The comments were sent to Richard Rogers, director of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources, Deputy Director Julie Grzyb and NPDES Permitting Section Chief Michael Montebello.

Read the petition and see who signed it here!

Don’t know much about Blounts Creek and why it matters? Listen to Sound Rivers’ podcast episode “The Story of Blounts Creek” here. Or read about the ongoing saga to Save Blounts Creek here.