Water Authority Answers Questions About Connecting To Tennessee American
By LYDIA BERGLAR
News Editor
The Oct. 22 meeting of the Dade County Water and Sewer Authority quickly covered business matters, then moved to questions from citizens Danny Hall and Dr. William Pullen Jr. (known as “Doc”).
Elizabeth Zeller (general manager) noted that the recently implemented Interactive Utility Communication (a third-party call service to handle after-hours calls) took 77 after-hours calls in the last month.
Frank Hawkins (plant manager) attended the meeting to explain the need to replace filters. The authority agreed to use the USDA loan to cover the labor (the largest expense in the project, roughly estimated at $300,000).
Moving on to Citizen Participation, Hall explained that he lives on the north end of the county and has heard various rumors about the ability to connect to Tennessee American, so he wanted to get information straight from the authority.
Hawkins explained that about 30 years ago, the water company turned on the valve to Tennessee American, and this supplied the entire north end of the county. However, about eight years ago when they used the connection again, the water could not get down to the Wildwood Post Office.
Eddie Cantrell (board chairman) explained that conversations connected to the Industrial Development Authority about expanding water lines on GA-299 have occurred, but he said, “We gave that information to Evan Stone to try and coordinate with Chattanooga to get more water pressure in case we need it.”
Hawkins explained that in emergencies, we can tie in to Tennessee American, but he doesn’t believe the current four-inch line will cover the entire north end of the county.
Pullen pitched in, explaining that he spoke with Stone who said that because the IDA does not have a business currently ready to move to GA-299, he did not contact Chattanooga about the (as of yet unknown) water needs.
Cantrell then assured Hall, “I have no reason to think there’s ever going to be that kind of water issue as far as where you won’t have water.”
Hall then asked how much water is lost due to leaks. Zeller said the amount is reported each month. This last month, it was 26 percent. She said this isn’t just due to leaks but also “theft of services, fire departments opening up fire hydrants and not letting us know, just stuff not being metered…For example, we have found people open up hydrants illegally, and that’s theft of service. We don’t know how much they use because they don’t have a meter on it. They just hook a hose to it and fill up a tanker truck.”
Wrapping up his comments, Hall said, “My children live here, and what I’m worried about is, do we have any plans or are we doing new stuff?” Cantrell explained that the authority makes improvements to the water infrastructure as money is available.
Pullen noted that he wanted to return to the IDA-related question, asking, “How many gallons could we pump to the north end, to 299?”
Hawkins explained that the water company is only allowed, by the state, to pull 3.8 million gallons from the creek per day, but the tanks could handle much more.
Pullen asked, “Do you have any measure of which part of the county’s growing, which is getting the most water?”
Hawkins gave an educated guess that Lookout Mountain (with McLemore, Brow Wood, and Covenant College) has more growing water needs than other parts of the county.
