Jun. 4--NASHVILLE -- A bill legalizing the release of more selenium into Tennessee streams fell one vote short of passage Wednesday amid claims that approval would mean poisoning the waters to help a coal company win a lawsuit.

The 49-41 vote, just shy of the 50 needed for approval, came after more than two hours of debate.

Sponsor Rep. Joe McCord, R-Maryville, said afterward that he is uncertain whether to bring the bill back to the floor for another try.

The sharpest attack on the bill came in an impassioned speech by Rep. Mike McDonald, D-Portland.

He said the measure is intended to help Knoxville-based National Coal Co., accused in a lawsuit of selenium releases violating the current lower standards on 13 occasions.

The state's current standard is 5 parts per million. The bill calls for the state Water Quality Control Board to set the standard at 7.9 parts per million, the level designated in a 2004 Environmental Protection Agency draft proposal that was never adopted.

McDonald said scientists' research indicates that the 7.9 level is "13 times greater than recommended for protection aquatic life" and projects that 85 percent of fish in a stream with that level of the naturally occurring mineral would die.

"This would legislatively mandate an increase in toxic selenium levels, something we have never done before with any toxic substance, ever," he said.

Besides causing confusion in the lawsuit, the bill would also allow National Coal to continue "discharging at dangerous levels" under three current coal mining permits, McDonald said.

"The more they can delay, the more they can poison the water," he said.

But McCord said the bill would have no effect on the lawsuit and that it was "insulting" -- both to himself and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation -- to suggest that the bill would kill 85 percent of fish in a stream and damage the environment.

"That is just absolutely ludicrous," he said. "(TDEC) would not allow for something that crazy."

TDEC has been neutral on the bill after McCord and coal industry supporters of the bill made some changes from the original.

There were several attempts to amend the bill that were defeated after McCord spoke against them.

One amendment, proposed by Rep. Joe Towns, D-Memphis, would have doubled the penalty for violating selenium pollution standards to $20,000 per day.

At one point, Rep. Dennis Ferguson, D-Harriman, proposed an amendment to require testing for selenium in fish and wildlife every two miles along the Tennessee River downstream from the recent coal ash spill at TVA's Kingston Fossil Plant.

Ferguson won a preliminary vote on his amendment, but wound up withdrawing it after a long discussion -- including McCord expressing opposition.

Tom Humphrey may be reached at 615-242-7782.

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