More than 260 people signed on to a petition drafted by Sound Rivers, asking for changes to a permit that will allow up to 12 million gallons of wastewater be discharged into Blounts Creek.
The nonprofit water protection group and the Blounts Creek community have been fighting the permit to discharge wastewater from a limestone mine into the creek for more than a decade.
Water quality experts said dumping 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 is asking for the permit to include language to make sure the creek is monitored; that impacts of the discharge to the creek be made transparent; to make sure permit conditions are enforceable; and that it includes criteria that would determine when the permit can be reopened and modified when impacts to the creek become clear.
