Rabun County has applied for their permit to dump 2 million gallons of treated sewage per day into the Little Tennessee River and a public hearing/meeting on this permit is scheduled for July 7th, 2009.

Our comments to the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) will include the following talking points:

1. Rabun County plans to use a chlorine treatment system. We request that the Georgia Environmental Protection Division require that an Ultraviolet (UV) Treatment process be put into operation to ensure that the water quality will be good enough for the Town of Franklin to use as an alternative water supply and so that the critical habitat for the Federally listed species in the Little Tennessee River will be protected.

2. Each time that a new industrial user is added onto the system, we expect the Georgia EPD to reevaluate the discharge permit and chemical limits and revise those limits as is necessary in order to protect water quality in the Little Tennessee River. Our biological data has proven in the past that the health of the water in this area is not stable and that is problematic for aquatic life. Obviously, we all want to see a new industry bring jobs back to that factory, but not at the expense of our tourism, recreation and real estate industires downstream.

3. We ask that the Georgia EPD take into consideration that there is already and active wastewater treatment plant just ¼ of a mile downstream from the former Fruit of the Loom plant. Please consider two questions that arise with this situation:

• Is there really a need for this much treatment capacity in the Little Tennessee River basin?
• How will more treated waste affect the river downstream, which is already not meeting its designated use (recreation) and is on both Georgia's and North Carolina's 303d list of polluted waters.

4. The State of Georgia just completed a Statewide Water Plan that outlines impacts to consider before an interbasin transfer of water is completed. We request that these guidelines be written (word for word) directly into Rabun County's discharge permit so that the downstream community's needs are taken into consideration before any water is permanently brought into or removed from the Little Tennessee River.

To download the draft permit as a PDF file, click on the link at the bottom of this page.