Tag: Protect Our Aquifer

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We Saw You: Let’s Have Another Cup of Coffee at Grind City Coffee Xpo

Having a spot of tea with Joel Borton and Matt Baudo at the Rishi Tea & Botanicals booth at Grind City Coffee Xpo

I’m proud to say I’ve attended and covered all three Grind City Coffee Xpo events since it began in 2019.

I love coffee. I drink it black like a film noir reporter. And I make it on the stove in an old-school percolator with the little glass thing on top.

So, attending Grind City Coffee Xpo, held November 5th at Wiseacre Brewing Co. downtown, was like being in coffee — and tea — heaven. I drank carbonated coffee at Comeback Coffee’s booth and tea at the booth for Rishi Tea & Botanicals out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. And lots of little cups of hot and cold coffee at other stations.

Dante Baker, Joseph Jenkins, Noah Randolph, and Raegan Jenkins at Grind City Coffee Xpo (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Ken and Mary Olds and Averell Mondie at Grind City Coffee Xpo (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Amy McPherson at Grind City Coffee Xpo (Credit: Michael Donahue)
David Lambert, Drew Smith, Teagan Griffith, Kim Lambert at Grind City Coffee Xpo (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Tamer Younis at Grind City Coffee Xpo (Credit: Michael Donahue)

This year’s event featured 18 vendors, says founder Daniel Lynn. “It was awesome,” Lynn says  “I think we’re going to end up with around 600 people. It was incredible.”

He doesn’t yet have the final amount of how much they raised for their charity, Protect Our Aquifer.

Alden Schmidt at Grind City Coffee Xpo (Credit: Michael Donahue)
MIcah Dempsey and Daniel Lynn at Grind City Coffee Xpo (Credit: Michael Donahue)

They didn’t feature tea at their first Xpo, which was held at the old Memphis College of Art.  

The event now features “anything in the coffee community,” including tea, Lynn says.

The Xpo also included Ounce of Hope. “I’m  a big believer in wellness, health. And CBD in coffee is a really nice thing.”

Cat Brooks, Collin Bercier, Kyle McFarland at Grind City Coffee Xpo (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Ounce of Hope at Grind City Coffee Xpo (Credit: Michael Donahue)

I asked Lynn what it is about coffee that gets people so excited. Besides caffeine, of course. “It’s so welcoming,” he says. “It not only tastes good, but there’s some incredible science behind it, too. Anyone can make a cup of coffee, whether you’re a novice and you just like your drip machine with your Community Coffee in it. Or you want to get crazy into it and you’re doing a Chemex pour over where you measure out the water and the coffee in grams. It’s a multi-step process. You put the timer on and start the pour and its super relaxing.”

You “let the coffee bloom and then come back and pour the rest of the water over the coffee.”

Making coffee is universal. “Anyone can do it. From the novice to the super nerd. I think it’s very approachable.”

Jessica Diaz, Scott Jackson, Erica Mathis at Grind City Coffee Xpo (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Magnolia Pelous and John Cook at Grind City Coffee Xpo (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Brian Miller and Wood Rodgers at Grind City Coffee Xpo (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Bram Bors-Koefoed, DJ Superman, Eric Scott at Grind City Coffee Xpo (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Julie Digeronimo and Evan Winburne at Grind City Coffee Xpo (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Will Sexton, Johnny Dowd, Amy LaVere at Grind City Coffee Xpo (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Spencer Kaaz and Matthew Burdine at Grind City Coffee Xpo (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Grind City Coffee Xpo (Credit: Michael Donahue)
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MLGW Again Declines To Name Power Bidders

Courtesy: Southern Environmental Law Center

Several Memphis environmental groups want to know what firms are bidding to supply the city’s electricity, but Memphis Light, Gas & Water (MLGW) said (again) they don’t have to share the information and won’t until the time is right. 

MLGW is in the midst of picking a power provider, either staying with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) or selecting a new company. The local utility is now the largest customer of the TVA and has been with the authority for more than 80 years. The idea to move away from TVA has been around for a long time, but last year MLGW formally began a process to possibly find other suppliers with a request for proposals.   

Bids came back from nearly 20 companies, but when Sam Hardiman, a Commercial Appeal reporter, asked for company names earlier this year, MLGW declined to provide them, citing state law that says MLGW can keep the company names and their proposals secret.

The laws in question say MLGW can hold the records until recommendations for awarding the contract are submitted by staff to the MLGW board. MLGW said Friday it would adhere to that process.

But several Memphis groups asked MLGW to see the proposals again this week. The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) asked for the records in a Thursday letter to MLGW on behalf of the Sierra Club, Memphis Community Against Pollution, and Protect Our Aquifer, known collectively in the letter as “Community Groups.” The decision is a big one, the letter says, and the public should know who is involved. 

 ”Community Groups — and the Memphis community generally — lack access to crucially important information related to the more than 20 bids MLGW has received in response to the [requests for proposals]. Shutting the community out of the process is profoundly concerning in light of the significance of MLGW’s impending decision.”

In a Friday statement, MLGW again refused to provide that information.

”In accordance with state law and MLGW policy, the proposals received in response to those [requests for proposals] “shall not be open for public inspection’ until notices of an intent to award are issued,” the utility said. “Once recommendations for award are submitted by MLGW staff to the MLGW Board regarding an RFP, all proposals submitted in response to that RFP will be available to the public for inspection, except to the extent that any information included in those proposals is protected in accordance with federal and state law for proprietary and system security proposes. 

”Members of the public will have further opportunities to provide comments and input as recommendations are considered by the MLGW Board and the Memphis City Council.”

MLGW said public input was “instrumental” in completing its integrated resource plan to decide what sources of power it wanted to use. SELC’s letter agreed and urged that MLGW be as transparent as possible in its current proposal process.

The SELC was concerned that by keeping the other contenders secret, TVA’s incumbent status would be given an “unfair advantage” with the public. It noted that group members have received emails from TVA touting its proposal, read multiple news stories about it, and even saw ”TVA’s high-visibility co-sponsorship with MLGW to provide drinking water at the Beale Street Music Festival.”  

SELC asked MLGW to make a decision on sharing the records within a week. 

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News The Fly-By

Protect Our Aquifer Teams Up With NASA For Aquifer Study

NASA’s Global Precipitation Measurement satellite will soon begin to image parts of 12 West Tennessee counties. (Photo: NASA)

Satellites from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will soon point their cameras at West Tennessee to better understand and protect the area’s drinking water.

Protect Our Aquifer (POA) teamed up with NASA for a research project starting this month to monitor the recharge zones of the Memphis Sand Aquifer. The project is part of NASA’s DEVELOP program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to address environmental and public policy issues through Earth observations around the world.

NASA will employ its Global Precipitation Measurement satellite, another tool from the International Space Station, and more to study the recharge zone, which spans 12 West Tennessee counties. The study hopes to find “hot spots,” where more water enters the recharge zone, and, then, to protect those hot spots.

These areas are important to a water system that supports more than 1 million people and industries, companies, and farms. These zones are where rainfall directly replenishes the aquifer.

“We have a valuable collection of remote sensing acquisitions, and we are excited to use this data over the Memphis Sand Aquifer to guide stakeholders,” said project adviser Kerry Cawse-Nicholson of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The study will last five months, and findings are due this summer.

We caught up with POA executive director Sarah Houston to talk about the project. How do they hope to use the information and how could it inform development in the region, especially around Ford Motor Co.’s Blue Oval City to built be close to these recharge zones?

Memphis Flyer: How did this collaboration with NASA come about?

Sarah Houston: It was actually through a Rhodes College graduate Erica Carcelen [project manager for the NASA DEVELOP program]. She had heard of Protect Our Aquifer and our work and is now working at NASA full-time. She reached out to us to apply for a program that pairs new hires with NASA with seasoned scientists to do really applied science research projects to take a lot of this information and available tools and apply it to a community need.

What do you hope to learn?

We are hoping that we can get a sense of these new technologies that can be applied to understand the aquifer system, not only for this study but future studies. This is the first time these satellite tools have been used for a study like this here.

We are hoping to get a sense of where our recharge zone hot spots are. Where the sands come to the surface, that’s where our water supply is being sustainably replenished.

We don’t want to pave over the recharge zone. So, we’re hoping to find specific areas that are our hot spots where more rainfall is directly re-entering the system compared to others. Those areas, we know, are very important for our water sustainability portfolio.

How do you hope to use the information?

This is going to be helpful, not only as Ford actually develops their property, but it will also be informative for the broader region as we start to see more development, like suburbs coming up. If there are areas that are really important to recharge, could those be conserved? So, how do we still grow the region sustainably and use best management practices as we’re building out these communities?

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Music Music Features

Calm Down, People: Livingston Taylor on Acoustic Sunday Live

Livingston Taylor by Mim Adkins 2017

Acoustic Sunday Live: It’s a Memphis tradition over three decades old now, and this year’s iteration is perfectly in keeping with its predecessors. The series, curated by Bruce and Barbara Newman, makes use of the couple’s deep contacts in the folk music world, typically bringing in multiple artists who could fill a room on their own in support of a local cause. “This concert series has benefited the Memphis community in various ways for many years,” Bruce Newman says, “but I’m especially pleased to work with Ward Archer and his team at Protect Our Aquifer — and their associated community partners — to protect the environment in our own backyard.”

This year’s concert, at the First Congregational Church on December 5th, features Grammy-nominated and Blues Music Award winner Shemekia Copeland, Nashville singer-songwriter Will Kimbrough, Grammy-nominated country/Americana singer-songwriter Jim Lauderdale, Memphis’ own hip-hop legend Al Kapone, and the iconic singer-songwriter and folk musician Livingston Taylor.

Taylor, one of five musical siblings, has been making records nearly as long as his famous brother James, having signed with Capricorn Records in 1970. When we spoke, he was in Tampa, Florida, to film a video on the craft of stage performance, something he knows a thing or two about. “You have to be able to not only write a song; you have to be able to present it,” he says. “I’ve been a professor at the Berklee College of Music for 30 years, where I teach a course I wrote called Stage Performance. It’s about the minutiae of how to go on stage, what your responsibilities are as an entertainer, and why people should be willing to pay attention to you.” Former Berklee students who have put his guidance to good use include John Mayer and Susan Tedeschi. “It’s been a wonderful course to teach over these years, though I’m winding that down a bit and turning into a professor emeritus.”

But music is far from an academic exercise for the veteran pop/folk performer. Indeed, there’s a strong current of uplifting spirituality to his music, though only a small portion of it is technically gospel. “Like all human beings, I’m a spiritual fellow,” he says. “I have no sense of a strong Christian upbringing or anything, but I was raised in North Carolina, with a lot of those Black gospel sensibilities around. So it seems to fall pretty easy, to write gospel songs. I love writing songs like ‘Oh Hallelujah’ or ‘Step by Step,’ or one called ‘Tell Jesus to Come to My House,’ which are all strong, ‘paint the barn red’ gospel songs.”

His ultimate goal, though, is more of a nonsectarian call for peace. “My music is designed to calm people down. These days, we’re being pretty hard on one another, and I’d really like to see that calm down. Certainly the forces that are around us profit from us being agitated and at each other’s throats. They get viewers and listeners by being inflammatory. And to me, that’s a discouraging trend. I would love it if we found a way to be a little gentler with one another. What I’d love my music to emphasize is that we are well and strong and, at the basis of all of it, we like each other.”

It’s a message appropriate for any grassroots-oriented gathering, and Taylor is enthusiastic about playing the upcoming benefit. “It’s obviously a worthy undertaking. I’m delighted to know about Protect Our Aquifer. Yet my real enthusiasm is for the musical event itself.”

That enthusiasm is only compounded by bringing his music to the Bluff City. “Memphis is certainly my favorite city in Tennessee,” Taylor says. “Not taking away from Chattanooga or Nashville, but Memphis is the strong one. It’s got a very mighty heartbeat, and the idea of coming back there to make music is a real thrill for me. Just to make music in Memphis, with all the beautiful spirits of that great city, will be a lot of fun. There’s a lot of musical energy there. I find when I play in Memphis, my playing gets reinforced by all those ghosts.”

Acoustic Sunday Live! presents The Memphis Concert to Protect Our Aquifer at 7 p.m. on Sunday, December 5th, at First Congregational Church. $50 and up. Visit acousticsundaylive21.eventive.org/schedule for details.

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News News Blog

Environmental Groups Oppose Pipeline Project

CREDIT: Corey Owens/Greater Memphis Chamber

Corey Owens/Greater Memphis Chamber

A diagram shows the layer of aquifers underneath Memphis.

Environmental advocates urged against a crude oil pipeline that they say will cut through several Black neighborhoods and could endanger drinking water.

Two companies began surveying here last year for a project to build a 49-mile pipeline from Memphis to Marshall County, Mississippi to connect to other crude-oil pipelines in the area. Plains All American Pipeline and Valero hope to begin work next year on the new Byhalia Connection Pipeline to bring more crude oil through Memphis to other places in the U.S.

A website for the project said the Byhalia Connection project is in the “pre-construction and easement acquisition phase of the project. We’re targeting to start construction in 2021 and be in service approximately nine months later.”

The plan was been questioned by Shelby County Schools (SCS), property owners along the proposed route, and by protestors last week.

On Friday, four local environmental groups asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to deny the federal permit for the pipeline. The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), Protect Our Aquifer, Tennessee Chapter of the Sierra Club, and Memphis Community Against the Pipeline (MCAP) argued the “pipeline that would cut through several Black communities and the municipal wellfield that provides their drinking water, which is drawn from the Memphis Sand Aquifer.”
byhaliaconnection.com

The proposed Byhalia Connection would run through Black communities and across drinking water intake wells.

”We’re alarmed that — so far — no local, state, or federal agency is looking out for the groundwater that serves as Memphis’s drinking water,” said George Nolan, SELC senior attorney. “The nationwide permit the companies have applied for under the Clean Water Act states in very plain language that this type of permit does not allow for the construction of pipelines near drinking-water intakes, like the municipal well field it will run through.
[pullquote-1-center] ”If this oil pipeline leaks or spills, as many have done before, it could have devastating effects on the residents that live in southwest Memphis and their drinking water source.”

The groups argue that the pipeline would cut through many Black communities in southwest Memphis, including the Boxtown neighborhood. They claim that neighborhood is already “burdened” by dozens of industrial facilities. The area is home to the Valero oil refinery, Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) shuttered, coal-burning Allen Fossil Plant, TVA’s gas-powered plant, and more.

“This resilient community, where many of our loved ones live and our ancestor’s bones rest, is being treated this way because of economic racism and environmental racism,” said Justin J. Pearson, a lead organizer of Memphis Community Against the Pipeline. “We care about the water that we drink, the land we live on, and the air we breathe, but too often our lives are deemed expendable by our own elected officials and company’s insatiable quest to profit off our very lives.”
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Southern Environmental Law Center

This image shows how the pipeline would cut through a drinking-water well field in southwest Memphis.

The groups say that because the pipeline would cross wetlands and streams, it would have to get a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers under the Clean Water Act. While the companies are trying to get a permit, they’re asking for the wrong one, according to the groups, because of the pipeline’s proximity to a drinking water intake source.

The pipeline would cut through a drinking-water well field in southwest Memphis, operated by Memphis Light, Gas & Water. The wells there draw water from the Memphis Sand Aquifer, the famously clean source of the city’s drinking water. The wells in southwest Memphis supply drinking water to the primarily Black communities there.

“We think the Corps should consider the risks to our drinking water plus the environmental injustices this pipeline poses to residents,” said Jim Kovarik, Executive Director of Protect Our Aquifer. “This area of the Memphis Sand Aquifer is known to be vulnerable to contamination due to holes in its protective clay layer. In fact, there is a known breach in the Davis Well Field, near the pumping station. On top of that, the route is also near an earthquake fault line known as the New Madrid Seismic Zone. This is the wrong place for a pipeline.”

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News News Blog

New Suit Challenges TVA’s Long-Term Contracts

CREDIT: TVA

Toby Sells

TVA president and CEO Jeffrey Lyash

Protect Our Aquifer and other environmental advocacy agencies sued the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Tuesday, August 18th, for what they claim are unfair, long-term contracts.

TVA began offering long-term contracts with lower rates last year to local utilities that would sign 20-year purchase agreements with the federal power provider. The contracts would cut suspend rate increases and offer a 3.1-percent rebate to those utilities, according to The Chattanooga Times-Free Press.

The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) filed a suit challenging the contracts in federal court on behalf of Protect Our Aquifer, Energy Alabama, and Appalachian Voices. The groups call the contracts “never-ending contracts, designed to keep local power distributors captive customers of the federal utility forever.”

“TVA is using these eternal contracts to stamp out any competition for the next century,” said Amanda Garcia, SELC’s Tennessee office director. “These never-ending contracts threaten to prevent local distributors from ever renegotiating their contract with TVA, let alone consider leaving the utility if it continues to lag behind in transitioning towards cheaper, cleaner renewable energy. These contracts will take the public’s interest completely out of public power.”

The groups claim the contracts place a “harsh cap on the ability of local power companies to use renewable power from non-TVA sources, and they seek to guarantee that TVA’s customer base, made up of municipal and member-owned local utilities, never leaves the utility.”

TVA

TVA’s natural-gas-fueled Combined Cycle Plant in Memphis

Scott Brooks, TVA spokesman, said the long-term contracts were developed “at the request of our local power company partners.”

“It is a completely voluntary agreement that provides both an annual 3.1 percent credit on wholesale power rates, as well as the flexibility to self-generate a portion of their own power, primarily through renewable energy,” Brooks said. “Since being introduced late last year, 141 of 153 local power companies have chosen to participate. Prior to the current long-term partnership agreements, several local power companies already had 20-year agreements with TVA and all had rolling terms.”

Of the lawsuit, Brooks said, “it would be inappropriate for us to comment further on the specific allegations in the lawsuit since we have not yet been served with it.”

The SELC said previous contracts were for seven years, offering up periodic opportunities for local utilities, like Memphis Light, Gas & Water (MLGW), to renegotiate contract terms or to find another power source. The new contracts, it says, require a 20-year notice to terminate and renew automatically “so that the length of the contract never ends.” 

The complaint alleges that the contracts could negatively affect the environment as it could influence TVA’s decisions to invest in energy resources, increasing greenhouse gases and other pollution, and increasing water usage across the Tennessee Valley.

“TVA’s continued reliance on fossil fuel resources has a lasting impact on Memphis’ primary drinking water source, the Memphis Sand Aquifer,” said Ward Archer, president of Protect Our Aquifer. “TVA has stored coal ash in a way that puts our drinking water aquifer at risk, and its use of billions of gallons of our clean drinking water to operate its gas plant for decades to come threatens the sustainability of our community.

“The public has a right for federal agencies to look at alternatives when making major decisions, and TVA deprived communities of that right before asking local distributors like Memphis Light, Gas & Water to sign these never-ending contracts.”

Southern Environmental Law Center

Aerial shots of TVA’s Memphis power plants

MLGW now has such an offer from TVA. However, the utility’s board will get a recommendation Wednesday from its president and CEO J.T. Young on whether or not to keep TVA as its power provider or to entertain proposals from other companies. If MLGW does decide to leave TVA, the exit will take five years to fulfill the current contract.

The suit alleges TVA broke the National Environmental Policy Act as it did not analyze or disclose the possible environmental consequences of the long-term contracts. TVA also broke the law as it did not consider alternatives to the contracts or get public input on the matter.

“While TVA keeps the lights on across the Valley, our utility kept the public in the dark around its game-changing decision to essentially trap power distributors’ customers and members in these regressive contracts for the foreseeable future,” said Brianna Knisley, Tennessee campaign coordinator for Appalachian Voices. “Ultimately, TVA blocked an opportunity for the public to participate in a major policy decision that will likely stall our region’s critically needed transition to renewable resources.”

Read the full complaint here:
[pdf-1]

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Grind City Coffee Xpo Returns

CREDIT: Grind City Coffee Xpo

Grind City Coffee Xpo

Grind City Coffee Xpo is back for its second year and promises to be even “bigger and more caffeinated” than last year. All proceeds will benefit Protect Our Aquifer.

The first Grind City Coffee Xpo was held in 2019 and hosted eight Memphis-based coffee shops and roasters and four coffee-centric food vendors. It drew more than 500 attendees.

“A huge difference between this year and 2019 is the inclusion of coffee professionals from outside of Memphis,” says Daniel Lynn, co-founder of Grind City Coffee Xpo along with Rachel Williams.

“We wanted to expand our community to others outside our wonderful city and have been amazed at the incredible response we have had from them,” he says.

“We have people coming from Nashville, Chattanooga, and Milwaukee to participate in this year’s expo. We can’t wait to share with them what Memphis has to offer and to introduce Memphians to some truly amazing people from elsewhere in the coffee community. That’s what it’s about. Growing our community.”

The expo will have three tiers for entry: 10 a.m. for $35, 11:30 a.m. for $25; or 12:30 p.m. for $20, and it’s happening on Saturday, March 14th, at the Pipkin Building at the fairgrounds. This year they will host more than 20 vendors and feature coffee and cocktail demonstrations from four pairs of baristas and bartenders, live music, three panel discussions led by industry professionals, and so much more.

Grind City Coffee’s mission is to celebrate the culture in and around coffee by providing an inclusive environment for everyone who fosters community over competition through educational, social, and craft events.

The Grind City Coffee Xpo will be held March 14th at the fairgrounds’ Pipkin Building (940 Early Maxwell) from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. Learn more and get your tickets here: grindcitycoffee.com.

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News News Blog

New State Bill Could Remove Local Control of Water Protection

CREDIT: Corey Owens/Greater Memphis Chamber

Tennessee Valley Authority

TVA workers install water quality monitoring wells near the Allen Fossil Plant.

A new Tennessee bill could ”un-protect our aquifer,” removing Shelby County’s ability to control wells drilled into the Memphis Sand Aquifer, the source of the area’s famously pristine drinking water.

The bill was filed last week by two West Tennessee Republicans, Sen. Delores Gresham (R-Somerville) and Rep. Curtis Halford (R-Dyer). The bill would prohibit cities and counties from exercising authority over a landowner’s water rights on “certain drilling requirements.”
[pdf-1]
A detailed explanation of the bill was not available on the Tennessee General Assembly website Monday. The legislature was not in session Monday, thanks to the Presidents Day holiday, and lawmakers could not be immediately reached. Also, request for comment on the bill was not immediately returned by Tennessee Senate Republican Caucus.

Scott Banbury, Conservation Programs Coordinator for the Tennessee Chapter of the Sierra Club, said he had not spoken to the bill’s sponsors as of Monday afternoon. But the bill is “about whether or not Shelby County has the authority to regulate groundwater wells within its jurisdiction.”  Facebook

Scott Banbury of Sierra Club Tennessee

“If this were in effect when we fought the (Tennessee Valley Authority), the (Shelby County Health Department) would not have been able to take their groundwater wells away from them,” Banbury said.

The TVA had drilled five wells into the aquifer near its now moth-balled Allen Fossil plant and intended to pump about 3.5 million gallons of water from them each day to cool its new gas-fueled power plant. Those wells were close to contaminated areas of the TVA site. TVA agreed to not use the wells in December 2018. By February 2019, the health department placed explicit rules on TVA using the wells in the future.

If the new bill was made law, Banbury said landowners would have to apply to the state for a permit. Shelby county would likely administer the program but local authorities would not be able to deny permission for any well being drilled here as long as it met state code. He said the proposed law would “remove Shelby County’s ability to do the right thing” in regard to protecting its water.

Ward Archer, president of Protect Our Aquifer, said the bill would “un-protect our aquifer” and “set us way back about 50 years” before local well controls were established here.

JB

(l) Ward Archer of Protect Our Aquifer displays some of the sand particles which, at several deep layers (this sample from 400 feet down) filter the near-pristine drinking water enjoyed by Memphis and Shelby County; (r) Jenna Stonecypher and Linda Archer sell a T-shirt to the Sierra Club’s Dennis Lynch. The shirt, bearing the non-profit group’s logo, says, ‘Save Water/Drink Beer.’

“We need (local regulation) because we are the largest city in the country getting all its water from the ground,” Archer said. “It’s not that way in Nashville. It’s not that way in Knoxville. It’s just not the way they get their water; theirs is mostly surface water.

“What we’re trying to do is not just conserve our water but to protect it from getting contaminated. So, that’s why you have to have a well program.

“We’ve got to manage that process tightly to make sure that if someone drills a well 800 feet down into the aquifer — and doesn’t do it properly — it can become a conduit for contaminants.”

The Senate bill was passed on to the Energy, Agriculture, and Natural Resources Committee but is not on the calendar for this week’s meeting. The House is not on the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting of the House Agriculture and Natural Resources committee.

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Music Music Blog

Maria Muldaur Makes Special Memphis Appearance For Protect Our Aquifer

Maria Muldaur

Maria Muldaur is one of those perennial luminaries in the music world that we all too easily take for granted. But even though her biggest hit, “Midnight At the Oasis,” came out in 1973, she has consistently created a body of quality, genre-spanning work that has one foot in the past and one eye on the future. It’s no small feat, then, that the annual Acoustic Sunday Live! series was able to add her to its roster this year, along with several other Americana talents. As with last year’s show, all proceeds benefit the nonprofit Protect Our Aquifer, dedicated to warding off threats to the pristine quality of this city’s natural underground water supply. I caught up with Muldaur to see what she’s been up to lately, and it turns out that it’s been quite a lot.

Memphis Flyer: Is your stop in Memphis part of a tour, or is this a one-off thing?

Maria Muldaur: First of all, I’m always doing a lot of shows. I haven’t slowed down at all. I started the year with a Grammy nomination for my 41st album, and did a couple of tours this year. In the fall I was awarded the Americana Music Association’s Trailblazer Award. And so in that sense I am doing a lot of shows, most of the time, but my stop in Memphis is to do something very special: a benefit for the aquifer. And then I’ll be doing some Christmas shows with an amazing guitarist named John Jorgenson. I’m looking forward to that. And that closes out the year for me.

MF: I know the progressive community in Memphis appreciates you lending your voice to this cause. You’re no stranger to wedding your musical talent to a political vision.

MM: Well, first of all, environmental causes shouldn’t be just for progressive communities. These different environmental crises and situations we’re facing are things that concern all of us, as a human, or even an animal, on the planet. These are universal issues. But I’ve always really cared about the environment, and about social issues.

In 2008, I put out an album called Yes We Can!. After making almost forty albums, I was searching for a theme for the next one, and I thought about all the issues that were weighing on my heart and mind at the time. So I came up with the idea of doing a protest album. But I quickly realized after a few days that I had never really liked “protest music” that much when it was first coming out in the early 60s. I totally believed in the causes they were singing about, but the music itself seemed a little dreary and overly serious for me.

So over a couple of days, the idea morphed into doing a pro-peace album. And I used a lot of songs that soul and R&B artists had written and recorded in the late 60s and early 70s. So I switched my focus a little bit and put together some wonderful songs from that era, including three Bob Dylan songs, and also songs by Marvin Gaye and so forth. And I formed something called the Women’s Voices For Peace Choir which included Bonnie Raitt, Joan Baez, Jane Fonda, Odetta, Phoebe Snow, Holly Near, Jenni Muldaur, and others. I gathered up a bunch of women who had raised their voices in the cause of peace and social justice and the environment. Whether it was through singing or another medium. And anyway, we all got together and did that album. I always like to do songs that address those issues. As long as they’re full of spirit and good music. I guess I would call it protest music to dance to.

MF: And the song “Yes We Can, Can” is a perfect example of that. Was that recorded in New Orleans?

MM: No, it was recorded here in the San Francisco Bay Area. But I have recorded many albums in New Orleans, including my last one, which was my 41st album. That was called Don’t You Feel My Leg, and it was a tribute to a wonderful blues woman from New Orleans named Blue Lu Barker. And I did that with a band of all-star, killer players from down there. My music is very informed by New Orleans music. So I have a special connection with that. But the “Yes We Can, Can” song was written by Allen Toussaint, one of New Orleans’ greatest musicians and songwriters, so you weren’t far off on that one. We lost a good one when he left us.

I also did the song “War.” And three Bob Dylan songs, “Masters of War,” “License to Kill,” and “John Brown.” To think that he wrote two of those when he was but 21 years old is kind of amazing.

MF: The song “John Brown” was fairly obscure — something he recorded under the name Blind Boy Grunt, for the Broadside Ballads album back in 1963.

MM: Possibly, but I actually first heard it sung by the Staple Singers. I’m a huge fan of the Staple Singers. In fact, I’ve known Mavis and the family since 1962, before they even broke out. I used to go hear them in a little church in New Jersey. I grew up in New York City. So Mavis and I go way back. And of course Pops Staples sang that one. And it’s just a riveting, really powerful, poignant song. I wanted to definitely include that one.

MF: It sounds like you’re somewhat familiar with the Memphis Sand Aquifer.

MM: I don’t know too many of the details, but the minute I heard a little bit about it, I said ‘Sign me on.’ It’s one thing when people make stupid choices without knowing any better, but now we do know better and it’s just sad that we even have to make an issue of it. It should be, ‘Oh, is this threatening to cause damage to our water supply? Oh, of course then we won’t do it!’

MF: Who will you be performing with in your Memphis show?

MM: Well, this is part of Bruce Newman’s benefit that he does every year, Acoustic Sunday Live! He does a benefit every year in the form of a hootenanny. It’s what we used to call ‘open mic’ back in the 60s. So I’m gonna be onstage with all of the other performers, including Ruthie Foster, who I dearly love. She’s just wonderful. Guy Davis, a wonderful guitarist. And Don Flemons. And also Doug MacLeod. So we’ll all be sitting onstage together, each doing a couple of songs. And they all play guitar and can back themselves up, but I explained to Bruce that I don’t play guitar. So I’m bringing my piano player from my band, the Red Hot Bluesiana band.

Blues is where I’ve comfortably settled after taking a 56-year odyssey through various forms of American roots music. My keyboard player for over 26 years, Chris Barnes, is going to back me up, because I need someone to accompany me. And I think there’ll be some nice interaction between us artists. There may be some duets and this and that. It’s a very informal and intimate format, really, and I’m really looking forward to it.

I think we’ll have fun because we’re all kind of musically interrelated in the styles of music we do. It ought to be a fun and creative evening. And I just hope that the folks of Memphis will come out to support this really good cause. It’s something that affects all of them. Besides raising money, we have to raise awareness about this and make people ever more aware and ever more vigilant about issues that are directly impacting the health of their environment.

I don’t care what party you support, we all have to breathe and we all have to have clean air and water. That these kind of things should even be an issue means we’ve got a long way to go to catch up with a lot of the rest of the world. The rest of the world is waking up and placing more of a priority on cleaning up the environment and rehabilitating it. We need to do everything we can not to further damage the environment.

I love Memphis, the people, the culture, the music, not to mention the food of Memphis. And I actually built in an extra day on my trip so I could spend a whole day at the wonderful blues museum down there. And it’ll be a special treat to be up on the stage with my brothers and sisters. I hope everyone will turn out and make it a success. Amen!

Maria Muldaur appears at Acoustic Sunday Live! The Concert to Protect Our Aquifer, with Ruthie Foster, Dom Flemons, Guy Davis, and Doug MacLeod. Sunday, December 8th, First Congregational Church, 7 p.m. Proceeds go to Protect Our Aquifer. To purchase tickets, go to acousticsundaylive.eventive.org.

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TVA Plans to Remove Coal Ash from Allen Site

CREDIT: Southern Environmental Law Center

Southern Environmental Law Center

Aerial shots of TVA’s Memphis power plants.

UPDATE:

Shortly after TVA announced on Wednesday that it would remove coal ash from ponds at the Allen Fossil Plant, state Senator Brian Kelsey announced he’d filed a resolution calling for the removal of coal ash from ponds at the Allen Fossil Plant.

“Clean water is one of our most precious resources in West Tennessee,” said Senator Kelsey. “We should be doing everything we can to ensure that it remains safe and clean for future generations.

“Action must be taken to ensure that arsenic and other toxic compounds found in the coal ash landfill sites are not leaking into our water supply. It is essential that the coal ash containment ponds at the plant be emptied and closed as quickly as possible in the interest of public health.”

Senate Joint Resolution 29 asks the TVA to take action to ensure Memphis water is protected from a potential breach.

ORIGINAL POST:

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) plans to remove the coal ash from its now-idled Allen Fossil Plant in Memphis.

TVA now has two coal ash ponds at the Allen plant and some coal ash around what TVA calls the metal cleaning pond. Coal ash is left behind after coal was burned to fuel the plant and make electricity. That ash, however, is toxic and arsenic and other chemicals have leaked into groundwater under the coal ash ponds at Allen.

TVA closed the ponds after it stopped using the fossil plant, switching to new plant that uses natural gas to make electricity. But the agency considered sealing the ponds and storing the ash in place. But TVA announced Wednesday that option is off the table.

Instead, TVA will consider options that remove the ash. They are now deciding where the ash will go.

One option has TVA building and using a “a proposed beneficial re-use facility to process (coal ash) materials. The other would move the ash in “to an offsite landfill location.”

Southern Environmental Law Center

Aerial shots of TVA’s Memphis power plants.

Removing the ash, too, could make the “closure area land available for future economic development projects in the greater Memphis area,” according to a statement from TVA’s website.

“Bottom line is TVA does not own this property, and we think this is the best option for the future economic development options,” TVA spokesman Scott Brooks said in a statement.

Members of the local branch of the Sierra Club and the Protect Our Aquifer (POA) groups said the decision to remove the ash was a step in the right direction.

“Closure-in-place was never an option in mind, not in anybody’s mind,” said Ward Archer, president of POA. “That’s the equivalent of doing nothing, basically. It can’t be done. We all know there’s no protective clay layer below (the coal ash ponds). They have got to get (the coal ash) out of there.

Scott Banbury, the Sierra Club’s Tennessee chapter conservation programs coordinator, said the move was “great news.”

“We knew already their preferred option was to dig the (coal ash) up and move it somewhere else,” Banbury said. “It’s nice that they are saying that publicly.”