Gov. Don Sundquist's environmental leadership made Tennessee a stronger, safer state
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A recurring theme of remembrances and celebration of the late Gov. Don Sundquist’s many contributions as a public servant has been his great love of Tennessee.
One of the most visible legacies of that love can be found today in the preservation, health, and beauty of our state’s natural resources.
Sundquist was a strong believer in the concept that a clean and healthy environment and a prosperous economy are necessary to one another.
His environmental and conservation policy decisions were defined by three elements:
Setting the example
Vision
Wisdom.
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Parks and natural areas expanded widely
Setting the example: Sundquist realized the example he set as governor mattered for posterity. During his eight years in office, he dramatically expanded state parks and natural areas, resulting in 200,000 acres of newly preserved lands; 29 new natural areas; three new state parks, including Bicentennial Mall in Nashville and Justin P. Wilson Cumberland Trail State Park, stretching 230 miles across 10 counties; the private donation of 27,000 acres of now-protected land; 400 miles of greenways and trails; and the establishment of the first new state forest in 50 years, named in honor of First Lady Martha Sundquist, herself a committed advocate for Tennessee’s natural resources.
Tennessee communities continue to benefit from the Tennessee Beautification Fund, established by Don and Martha and administered by the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, to support projects such as wildflower plantings, litter collection, town square beautification, shade tree plantings, and more.
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Sundquist’s contributions to addressing pollution and other environmental threats were also myriad. They included partnering with the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County to bring the Cumberland River up to EPA water quality standards; forcing the federal government to end new coal mining permits above Fall Creek Falls; brokering agreements to clean up the Pigeon River; cleaning up 400 actively contaminated sites; and creating the South's first environmental justice plan.
Sundquist had a vision for cleaning up pollution
Vision: Sundquist understood the future of Tennessee lay in conserving, protecting, and enhancing its strengths such as abundant and affordable water.
His policy for regional water supply development ended unwise state permits for small, inefficient, and costly impoundments.
He brought together the governors of Alabama and Mississippi to protect the Tennessee River from reckless water rights grabs proposed by Georgia. He formed the West Tennessee River Basin Authority to replace channelization of rivers with more lasting solutions that followed natural river courses.
He created the state's first brownfield toxic cleanup law to turn low-value, high-risk sites into safe, economically valuable community assets. And he led efforts to clean up the 7,700 acre Volunteer Army Ammunition Plant site in Chattanooga, which is now Enterprise South, home to Volkswagen’s LEED Platinum plant producing all-electric SUVs and a new, 9.3 megawatt solar farm.
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As governor, he brought together diverse stakeholders to act
Wisdom: Sundquist believed in gathering the best ideas from all sources. He wanted each issue to be carefully researched and vetted by the local community and to reflect the input of as many stakeholders as possible, ranging from landowners, the private sector, local leaders, environmental groups, and more.
At a bill signing to establish the first new state scenic river in 25 years, Sundquist noted it was the first piece of legislation for which he personally had received no complaints, a testament to the thoroughness of public engagement leading up to its establishment.
This bottom-up approach was key to the successful passage of the Inter-Basin Transfer (ITA) Act and the Water Information Act to address threats to Tennessee’s water supply, developed after an extensive stakeholder engagement process in partnership with the University of Tennessee, the University of Memphis, the EPA, and the U.S. Department of Justice. The ITA, passed in 2000, prevented Atlanta, the Georgia legislature, and other states and cities from extracting water from the Tennessee River without first documenting "harm" to downstream river users.
Sundquist’s policy chief, Justin P. Wilson, recently noted the governor’s approach represented "a virtuous circle of economic and environmental prosperity that successive Tennessee governors and legislators have emulated or expanded as new public policy."
Tennessee owes a debt of gratitude to Governor Sundquist for his tireless efforts in protecting and enhancing its natural resources for present and future generations.
Dodd Galbreath is director and associate professor of the Institute of Sustainable Practice Graduate Program at Lipscomb University and served as a policy director in the Sundquist administration from 1995 to 2003.
Melanie Moran is a communications consultant who served as a policy analyst and writer in the Sundquist administration from 1996 to 2003.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Environmental protection: Tennessee Gov. Don Sundquist set a high bar
