White oak stand spared ax

White oak stand spared ax

A stand of white oak trees, estimated at 200 to 400 years old, soars toward the sky near a site where a hotel and hot springs once stood in Bon Aqua, Tenn. The stand of trees, which may be older than the state, will be preserved after an environmental activist struck a deal to buy the rural property, saving the trees from a lumber mill.

DICKSON, Tenn. — A stand of white oaks that may be older than the state will be preserved after an environmental activist struck a deal to buy the rural property and save the trees from a lumber mill.

Between 50 and 100 oaks are on the land, which was a mineral springs resort during the 1800s. Foresters estimate the trees are between 200 and 400 years old.

"You can almost hear those trees talk," said John Noel, the activist and businessman who stepped in to save the property. "You can feel it, the history. When John Hancock, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson were signing the Declaration of Independence, this forest was already growing."

Noel is paying $270,000 to investors who bought the 35 acres outside Dickson at auction in September and were planning to timber it for wood veneer.

"We made a handshake deal in the middle of that forest, and they kept it," said Noel, who also is a real estate investor.

"They listened to my plea not to cut that forest."

Some of the trees stand more than 120 feet tall, with wide canopies and straight trunks. Their value ranges from $1,500 to $7,000, and such thick stands are rare because white oak is highly sought by Japanese and German veneer makers.

"I didn't think there was any such piece of property in Tennessee, or the Southeast for that matter," said Jack Little, a forestry management specialist who recently walked the property with Noel and state officials.

"John did the right thing, bless his heart. That should be preserved for generations in the future to see because there's nothing like it around."

Noel, president of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and vice president of the Tennessee Conservation Voters, first heard about the trees from the son of a former owner who was concerned that they had been auctioned off.

After talking with state conservation officials, Noel struck a deal to buy the land himself because the state might not be able to move quickly enough to save the woods.

The State Building Commission last week approved plans to purchase the land from Noel pending an appraisal. The process could take a year, with the money coming from a combination of federal funds, trusts, grants or state money set aside for land acquisition.

The land was part of a more than 100-acre spread that once included the posh Bon Aqua Springs resort hotel.

A train traveled 35 miles from Nashville three times a day during the 1800s and 1900s, carrying passengers who wanted to soak in the resort's sulfur and sweet water mineral springs. The Tennessee Bar Association held its first conference there in 1882.

Reggie Reeves, director of the state's Natural Heritage Division, said the oaks, the history, a cave and other plants, including umbrella magnolia trees, combine to make the property a real find.

Noel paid about twice the going price for land in the area to save the trees.

"I don't think I got a bargain. I think it is a bargain to have saved it," Noel said. "If it was gone, you wouldn't have anything."

EPA fines DuPont $10 million

BY MICHAEL JANOFSKY
NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE
WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday that it had reached a $16.5 million settlement with DuPont, which it had accused of failing to report information about the health and environmental risks of a substance used in making Teflon and other plastics.

The settlement includes $10.25 million in fines, which the agency says is the largest administrative penalty it has ever imposed, and a commitment by DuPont to spend another $6.25 million for two environmental projects in lieu of more fines.

"This settlement sends a strong message that companies are responsible for promptly informing EPA about risk information associated with their products," said Granta Y. Nakayama, assistant administrator for the agency's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance.

The agency said DuPont had withheld information about perfluorooctanoic acid, a chemical known as PFOA that is used in processing high-performance plastics, from residents near the company's plant in Parkersburg, W.Va., where the chemical contaminated local waters. The agency said the company had information on the chemical's potential risk as early as 1981 but did not report it, as required by the federal Toxic Substances Control Act.

Stacey J. Mobley, DuPont's general counsel, said the company had interpreted the reporting requirements differently but had agreed to the settlement "to get this case behind us."

Under the agreement, DuPont was not required to admit liability, a standard arrangement in cases the agency is eager to close.

While Nakayama described the size of the settlement as "appropriate" when weighed against the costs of litigation, the Environmental Working Group, a research organization, described it as woefully inadequate for DuPont, the nation's third-largest chemical company.

"This fine, at the very least, should have prompted DuPont to apologize to the public for its actions," said Ken Cook, president of the group.

The information that the agency accused DuPont of withholding came to light during a 2001 class action lawsuit against the company, filed by residents living near the West Virginia plant who claimed that the chemical had contaminated local waters. The company settled the case last February for more than $107 million.

After Cook's group brought the information to the EPA, an agency investigation led to eight charges against the company that largely focused on studies of PFOA in blood, water and rats.

Officials from the agency and DuPont said that so far there were no studies proving that PFOA was a significant health hazard to humans.