Published: February 21, 2008 08:33 pm         

City council wants to move ahead with expanded water supply

Water discussion took up a large part of the Crossville City Council's time at their regular February meeting including a renewed push to see the Meadow Park Dam raised, a plan that could help keep the almost 70-year-old lake providing adequate drinking water to Cumberland County for many years to come.

Crossville Mayor J. H. Graham III lead the discussion of the raw water supply and said that according to TVA last year was part of the worst drought in 118 years. Graham reported that recent rains had helped and Holiday Hills Lake is full once again with water flowing over the spillway and Meadow Park Lake is nearly full.

“But we are still in a drought,” stressed Graham, “and I expect we will still be on into the summer of 2008. If you all think last summer was bad, this summer could be worse.”

For several years the council has been studying the possibility of raising the Meadow Park Lake Dam in order to enlarge the reservoir and increase its capacity to allow an increase in water production. Substantial engineering studies show the dam is capable of being raised and would allow the lake to hold substantially more water. The question has always been, is there enough water supply and runoff to fill the larger proposed lake?

One of the options that has been discussed is something called water harvesting, a process in which water is taken from another water source when there is excess water. That water is then pumped into a reservoir for storage and eventual use as drinking water. The city has recently been in discussions with Lake Tansi Village about the possible use of water from Lake Tansi as a water harvesting source.

During the council meeting, engineer Barry Field reported to the council about the study his firm did at the city's direction concerning how much water can be safely taken out of Lake Tansi without affecting the lake's normal pool level. Fields looked at all the water coming into the lake from rain, water runoff, and base flow from springs creeks and tributaries into the lake. In addition, the study looked at water losses from the lake including evaporation, water use for irrigation, as well as leakage, transpiration and other unknown losses.

Using very conservative estimates, Field was able to calculate how much water could be drawn from the lake each month without affecting the water level in the lake. During the wettest four months of the year, around 6 million gallons a day could be pumped to Meadow Park Lake. During the drier months, between 3.5 and 4 million gallons a day could be pumped while just 2 million gallons a day could be safely pumped during August and September. According to Field, during October, the safest course of action would be to pump no water from the lake, based on historic rain fall amounts.

Councilman Boyd Wyatt expressed some frustration with the delay in the Meadow Park Lake expansion project after the city's partnership with the Army Corps of Engineers in 2005. While some federal money has been available and an additional $90,000 has been appropriated according to Congressman Lincoln Davis, the only thing accomplished so far according to Councilman Wyatt has been studies where studies were done before.

“I'm ready to move forward and raise the dam using city money as we originally talked about as a solution to the water issue for the next 50 years,” stated Wyatt.

Mayor Graham said that current estimates show that if the city has the capability to produce some 15 million gallons a day added to the current supply from the Crab Orchard Utility District, there would be adequate water supply for a county population of 100,000 people.

Graham said, “With water harvesting, we can reach this goal.”

One other issue has come up and is helping push the council toward a decision to work on the Meadow Park Dam. The city recently received a letter requesting a study of the Meadow Park dam to make sure it is in compliance with the Safe Dams Act. When engineers with ECE Services looked at the dam in depth three years ago, some work was required to slow leakage through the dam. ECE submitted a proposal to the city to do the study requested by the Safe Dams Act but the council approved a larger study to include work on raising the dam to the most economically feasible level assuming water harvesting is used to help fill the lake.