Good info on MTR in Tennessee from Chris Irwin at the awesome United Mountain Defense::
UMD has found several streams with high phosphate readings beneath new clear cuts and strip mines in several quads in tennessee. Literally we hit streams with phosphate readings off the chart on our Lamottes test.

…

No one from OSM or TDEC new where the phosphate was coming from. Often it is ag runoff–or a laundrymat/carwash–and thats what agency officials said when I begain informally polling them on what they thought it might be–we had no idea. In fact we only did the phosphate test because it just happened to be in the lamottes test kit we used. We went through entire testing days with no high phosphate readings–or just traces, in fact we hit hot streams right after logging.

Finally an OSM officer from D.C. suggested naturally occuring phosphate pockets. I did some research, guess what–he is right.

F.D.R. even wrote about Tennessees naturally occuring phosphate pockets–and its role in the war effort (see below). A google search with “Tennessee Phosphate deposits turns up many interesting articles.

Neither TDEC or OSM are taking into account the risk of high levels of phosphate may be released from hillsides due to the mining. I believe this because I asked the personal for both agencies (and like me) they also had no idea where the phospate was coming from.

This is just a flat out field work observation. Usually you get the high readings of phosphate in lakes, ponds–places for it to gather. To have streams hitting dark dark blue almost black on the Lamottes test is can be explained by these naturally occuring pockets. I am not sure what to do with this information–but I wanted to put it out to all the minds on this list fighting strip mining in Tennessee.

Here is FDR on Tennessee phosphate.
• Franklin D. Roosevelt
Message to Congress on Phosphates for Soil Fertility.
May 20th, 1938
Therefore, the question of continuous and adequate supplies of phosphate rock directly concerns the national welfare.
The total known world supply of phosphate rock is estimated at 17.2 billion tons, of which 7.2 billion tons is located in the United States. Nearly all the remainder is controlled by Great Britain, France and Russia. The supply in the United States is distributed as follows: Florida 7.4 per cent, Tennessee 1.4 per cent, Western States (Idaho, Montana, Utah and Wyoming) 90.8 per cent, and other States (Arkansas, Kentucky, South Carolina, and Virginia) 0.4 per cent. The domestic production of phosphate rock amounted to 3,351,857 tons in 1936, drawn from Florida (78.3 per cent), Tennessee (19.2 per cent), and Idaho and Montana (2.5 per cent). Exports of phosphate rock amounted to 2,208,951 tons, almost entirely from Florida, and consumption of phosphate rock for non-agricultural purposes totaled 352,275 tons

The total known world supply of phosphate rock is estimated at 17.2 billion tons, of which 7.2 billion tons is located in the United States. Nearly all the remainder is controlled by Great Britain, France and Russia. The supply in the United States is distributed as follows: Florida 7.4 per cent, Tennessee 1.4 per cent,

also–here is the USGS on Tennessee phosphorous. It confirms that it does bleed into streams.

Nonpoint sources of total phosphorus account for 52 to 98 percent of the annual total phosphorus stream yields; point sources account for less than 2 to 48 percent of the annual total phosphorus stream yields in basins unaffected by impoundments. Nonpoint-source inputs of total phosphorus from natural deposits of phosphatic limestone in the lower Duck River (Williamsport Bridge and Hurricane Mills) and the Elk River (Prospect) Basins (fig. 2) contribute to the highest annual stream yields of total phosphorus [greater than 0.88 (tons/mi2)/yr] among the basins in the lower Tennessee River Basin. Stream yields of total phosphorus are less than 0.08 (tons/mi2)/yr in the undeveloped Buffalo River Basin and in the Elk River (Tims Ford Dam) and Duck River (Normandy Dam) Basins, where sampling sites are located directly downstream of reservoirs that act as major sinks for phosphorus. Point-source inputs of total phosphorus account for less than 48 percent of the annual total phosphorus stream yields in the Clarks River and Shoal Creek Basins. Despite the large percentage of inputs from point sources in the Clarks River and Shoal Creek Basins, annual stream yields of phosphorus are low [0.30 (tons/mi2)/yr in Clarks River Basin and 0.15 (tons/mi2)/yr in Shoal Creek Basin] when compared to yields in basins within the lower Tennessee River Basin that contain natural deposits of phosphatic limestone.

http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs02501/htdocs/yields.html

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