Bell Buckle discusses water woes

With leaks in their system and their residents forced to boil their drinking water last week, the wet stuff was once again a major topic of discussion for Bell Buckle Board of Mayor and Aldermen Tuesday.

A drinking water warning was issued for the Wartrace water system last week as a precaution due to high turbidity levels and the potential of contaminated water. Bell Buckle is mainly supplied by Wartrace, although it also has the option of getting water from Bedford County Utility District (BCUD).

Water manager Ronnie Lokey told the board he was told about 10 a.m. last Tuesday by Brian Smith of the Wartrace Water Department that the turbidity level had gone over the maximum amount and that the Health Department had been notified and the boil water alert was issued.

Lokey immediately sent Bobby Maxwell to Wartrace to shut off the supply flowing to Bell Buckle and BCUD was turned on at Fairfield Pike. Bell Buckle already had enough water stored in its tanks to fulfill their customers' needs without any supply or pressure problems.

Wartrace faxed the official notice of the alert to Bell Buckle, where copies were made and carried to the Post Office, 82 Market, Bluebird Ice Cream, The Webb School and Bell Buckle Cafe.

Lokey went to Cascade Elementary School around lunch time and met with Principal Martha Fisher, who said the water fountains would be cut off, sack lunches would be used until Friday and that notices would be sent home with the students.

Last Wednesday, David Money of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation was in the area to monitor the situation. Lokey pulled four bacteria samples and all were negative; however, turbidity was high around Horse Mountain Road.

When the turbidity fell below the maximum level last Friday, Lokey contacted Money, who lifted the boil water notice.

But problems with Wartrace's water wasn't the only challenge Bell Buckle faced this month. Lokey reported that the town had a water loss of 35 percent, and a major leak was fixed on Tuesday.

The leak was discovered after a resident reported hearing a roaring sound come from underground. Lokey said it was a broken service line that was losing an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 gallons a day.

In March, Bell Buckle reported four bypasses of its waste water treatment plant into Bell Buckle Creek. Lokey said that some of this was caused by ongoing construction that the facility and could not be avoided and some by the existing pump station.

However, most of the bypass into the creek was caused by the large amount of rain the area received. Last Friday, when rainfall was the heaviest, their new lift station and existing station were pumping about 650 gallons a minute or 936,000 gallons a day, "and was barely keeping up with the flow," Lokey reported.

The rainfall caused the town's equalization basin to fill up last Friday and the town started bypassing, which continued until around 3 p.m. Tuesday.

Engineer Jim Patterson was in Bell Buckle this week and was present when the water department was opening manholes to check the flows and for leaks. Patterson is working on plans to rehabilitate the worst parts of the system for the board to consider.

Patterson also briefed the board on the situation with the water tank at Covered Bridge, which is experiencing soil slippage. Patterson said the last year's exceptional drought caused the soil to become very brittle and the heavy rainfall over the past few weeks have weakened the slope of the hill.

The engineer also stated that the hill where the tank is sitting is a bad site and "should have never been done as it is."