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Maryville officials contacted the Tennessee Division of Water Pollution Control on Wednesday to get an official ruling on whether the city can continue to take water out of Little River.
The city was still waiting for an answer late Wednesday.
Jeff Rose, Maryville water quality control manager, said John West of the state Division of Water Pollution Control in Knoxville was called and West is contacting Nashville about the problem.
“We’ve not heard from the state to stop pumping yet,” Rose said.
He said the city sent the state all the information detailing what the Maryville has done to conserve water — calling for voluntary residential conservation and then mandating conservation of residences and businesses.
Maryville is supposed to stop pumping water out of Little River at its plant on Sevierville Road when the river falls to 37 cubic feet per minute of flow at the plant. Maryville officials believed the flow was at 38 cfs on Tuesday, but the United States Geological Survey recalibrated the meter that day and said the flow was actually 33 cfs.
That rate has dropped to 32 cfs currently.
“We’re going to do everything we can to keep water flowing to our customers, especially for essential uses,” Rose said.
“It’s definitely at a critical level. We’re hoping for rain as soon as possible,” he said.
“It looks like we may have maxed out what we can get from South Blount.”
South Blount Utility has a water plant on Tellico Lake and has been selling Maryville 1.2 million gallons of water a day.
“Originally the South Blount system was set up to flow from Alcoa (where they purchased water). Now they built the new plant and it is coming from Punkin Center. In the middle of their system there is not enough line capacity to pump extra water to us,” Rose said. Those lines are 6 inches and 8 inches.
In the future South Blount reportedly plans to run a 24-inch line up U.S. 411 South from the plant at Four Mile Creek, he added.
“Long-term we have several options. One is to go with South Blount with a large line,” he said.
Rose said Maryville is telling residents and businesses that there are no provisions for people to water new landscaping plants or grass.
Kenny Wiggins, Alcoa director of public works, said the flow at the Alcoa water plant on Little River on Sam Houston School Road “is 22 cfs and we are supposed to maintain it at least 20 cfs.”
Even with that slight leeway, Wiggins is still concerned.
He “checks the cfs levels 10 times a day. I can even access it on my cell phone. It’s on everybody’s mind.”
Wiggins said, “Alcoa and Maryville met Wednesday afternoon to plan a preliminary strategy to get raw water pretty quick.”
It should take $2 million for a early fix to get water further downstream from the Alcoa plant below a mussel colony, according to Wiggins. This would be in the area of the embayment where Little River enters Fort Loudoun Lake. Diesel pumps would be used for the short term to pump the water to the Alcoa plant.
Then the city would have to go back and bury the pipes under ground and install a permanent pumping station, Wiggins said.
Alcoa could then sell water to Maryville.
Maryville is currently using a little over 4 million gallons per day, 1.2 million gallons purchased from South Blount.
Alcoa, which sells ALCOA Inc. 3 million gallons a day, produced 9.76 million gallons on Aug. 12, and that has been cut to 8.05 million gallons, Wiggins said.
People are beginning to improvise and find other ways to get the needed water.
Finding water
For example, Wal-Mart in Maryville has a 500-gallon tank and one of their vendors is filling it with water from an area creek. Wal-Mart has thousands of dollars in plants, 90 percent of which are mums, that need the water to survive.
Alcoa Fire Department early Wednesday had an old pumper truck getting water from the Springbrook Corporate Center Lake to water plants along Associates Boulevard.
Ted McKee of Ted’s Auto Detailing on East Broadway Avenue, Maryville, bought two 330-gallon tanks and is buying water from a patron in Knoxville.
He not only washes cars, but also shampoos carpet and seats, cleans the vehicles and waxes and buffs them, so water is essential.
Plan B is to drive the cars to Kingston Pike and go through drive through washes there, he said.
“I’ve got too much work in the business. I’d hate to loose experienced workers. I’ve been here seven years,” McKee said.
Alcoa does allow people with new landscaping to request permission to water the plantings. To make this request call 380-4730.
Maryville does not have such a clause in their water conservation regulations.