![]() “Whether waters flow on the surface or underground, they are all waters of the U.S.” ![]() I don’t see how you can exclude any of it,” Finch says. “We are in the U.S., and these are our waters. Finch joined Earthjustice’s legal action to stop industry attempts to further dilute some of the already tepid protections in the rule. For one, the Clean Water Rule uses arbitrary distance-based cutoffs to determine whether there’s a significant hydrological connection between groundwater and surface waters. While challenging the development, Finch was disillusioned to learn about the limits of clean water regulation. Hydrogeological connections, he argued, could very well carry the polluted stormwater to two neighboring creeks, eventually drifting into Center Hill Lake, the source of Cookeville’s drinking water. When Finch heard about a developer’s plans to destroy a wetland and dispose of treated stormwater runoff by injecting it into a subterranean aquifer, he resolved to oppose the development. For example, he’s found that oils, grease, bacteria and nutrients in stormwater runoff can travel for miles through conduits worn through ancient rock. In four decades of exploring local caves, springs and sinkholes, he’s seen some worrisome things-a leaky sewage pipe fouling an underground stream, a cave filled with discarded tires and all kinds of garbage churning underground during heavy rains.Īs part of his fieldwork, Finch has released biodegradable dye into streambeds to determine their underground connections, so he knows his local waters connect in surprising ways. “Meanwhile, I’m busy finding the arrowheads, fossils and coins!”įinch lives in Cookeville, Tennessee, about 80 miles east of Nashville. “When we hike, my wife sees blossoms in trees, birds’ nests, squirrels and clouds,” he says. Richard Finch has always been “oriented towards the earth.”
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