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Article published Nov 4, 2007 Maryville faces more water woes
By Iva Butler of The Daily Times Staff
While Maryville now has enough water for its customers, the city may have to again call for mandatory conservation as early as this week. This issue was discussed at a Maryville City Council work session late last week. An emergency secondary intake on Little River at Rockford has been installed by the city of Alcoa and has resolved the flow problem at the Alcoa water plant but not at Maryville’s plant. Alcoa installed a floating intake at a Little River embayment near Williams Mill Road. A 24-inch ductile iron pipe has been installed on top of the ground temporarily, and water is being pumped to the Alcoa plant off Sam Houston School Road. The permanent line will later be buried. That water is being dumped back in Little River above the Alcoa plant, which put the flow at 37 cubic feet per second there Friday afternoon. Under its water plant permit, Alcoa must quit taking water out of the river at 20 cfs. The amount of water at the Maryville plant, located off Sevierville Road, was not affected by the secondary intake. On Friday afternoon, the Maryville flow was 41 cfs. Maryville is supposed to quit drawing water at 37 cfs. To show how historically low the current flow is, Jack Graham, assistant Maryville director of water quality control, said the previous low recorded was 51 cfs in 1952. “The long-range weather forecast calls for a 20-percent chance of rain Tuesday. That usually means zero for us. Anything higher than 20 percent is not forecast until Nov. 11,” Graham said. Jeff Rose, Maryville director of water quality control, said “The emergency Alcoa line is in place, and the pumps are working. We are buying 250,000 gallons a day from Alcoa. Hopefully, in the next day or two we will be testing to see what amount we can get from Alcoa.” If calculations are correct, the city should be able to purchase 1.2 to 1.3 million gallons per day from Alcoa if needed in the future. Maryville is currently purchasing 1.2 million gallons a day from South Blount Utility District, whose water plant at Tallassee gets raw water from Tellico Lake at Four Mile Creek. In addition to the purchases, Maryville is pumping 2.8 to 2.9 million gallons from Little River per day. Rose said the additional water source definitely does not address the flow problem at the Maryville plant. “We have to keep pumping some water through the plant,” Rose said, due to the way the operation works. Maryville will be renewing its withdrawal permit and will try to get the cfs lowered,” Rose said. However, “I don’t really expect to get an answer this season. It will probably be in the spring.” Maryville City Manager Greg McClain said, “Maryville and Alcoa have plenty of water now. What we’re dealing with are regulatory restrictions. We can get the water.” The agencies are TVA, Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The city plans to try to get the cfs lowered because Alcoa now has a 16-million-gallon-a-day plant instead of a 24-million-gallon-a day plant. Part of Maryville’s cfs designation is based on the fact that there must be enough water left in the river past the Maryville plant to supply the Alcoa plant downstream. McClain said the regulatory agencies moved fast to resolve the immediate drought problem. There is a lot of dialogue going on, but McClain said he does not know if they will move as quickly on the lower cfs as requested. Customers comply Graham complimented customers on voluntary conservation. In August, Maryville customers used 157 million gallons of water, which was cut in October, when mandatory conservation was in place, to 111 million gallons. That is a 21-percent reduction overall, when the target cut was 10 percent, Graham said. With the purchases from South Blount, Maryville’s overall reduction of water taken out of the river was 32 percent, he added. “I could stand up and cheer because the water reduction by the city of Maryville has been phenomenal,” Graham said. South Blount is selling Maryville water at 95- to 97-cents per thousand. That is about double Maryville’s cost to treat water at the Maryville plant, which is 50- to 55-cents per thousand. Alcoa is trying to come up with its costs to treat the water before it gives Maryville a cost figure. “They’ve indicated they will give us a good deal,” Rose said. “Alcoa and South Blount costs are more than Maryville’s because they have brand new plants,” he added. Graham said, with improvements to the Maryville plant, instead of an entirely new plant, “We are still the lowest cost water producer in the county.”