Wartrace Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted Monday to begin the process of pursuing a contract with Tullahoma Utilities Board (TUB) to provide water to Wartrace customers after area residents were forced to boil their water supply for nearly two weeks.

Wartrace, which also provides water to Normandy, Beech Grove and Bell Buckle, issued a boil water advisory on April 1 after heavy rains caused surface water to enter Cascade Spring, which impacted the quality of their supply.

The resolution authorized Mayor Don Gallagher to secure Stigall and Associates as the engineering firm for the project, negotiate a contract for TUB for the board's approval, sign all the necessary papers with Rural Development for the funding and perform all tasks necessary to expedite the project.

The Rural Development District has already agreed to provide the $150,000 needed for the project in a 70/30 loan/grant, which would involve constructing a water line from Cascade Springs to a TUB water line that is located approximately 4,000 feet away.

Wartrace officials met Friday with officials of TUB and the Duck River Utility Commission (DRUC), which provides water to TUB, to discuss options for water customers to this rural part of Bedford County.

TUB offered Wartrace two options: Use Tullahoma as its sole water source or as a backup source.

Currently, TUB does not have a single customer that uses such an amount of water, so a new rate was proposed - $1.70 per thousand gallons. The cost would consist of three components - the cost of wholesale water to TUB from DRUC at $1.10, a five cent Duck River Agency water fee, and 55 cents for a TUB water distribution fee.

Both TUB and DRUC would ask their respective boards to commit to holding the price firm until July 1, 2010. The rate is not dependent upon Bell Buckle continuing to buy its water from Wartrace. The current cost for Wartrace is $2 per 1,000 gallons, and the TUB deal would result in a savings for the town.

DRUC has also offered to do Wartrace's water quality testing if this option is chosen. Gallagher said that this option would also save the town money because it would not be required to build a $3 million water filtration system nor would it need to employ the qualified personal to run it.

TUB is proposing the agreement for a term of 10 years but is willing to consider a longer or shorter term.

The backup supply option contains a two part fee: A $500 per month charge for interconnection and standby availability and a charge of $3.89 per 1,000 gallons for all water up to 100,000 gallons, and $3.57 for all water above 100,000 gallons in a billing cycle. TUB is also willing to consider a third tier to the rate if Wartrace uses more than 1,000,000 gallons in a billing cycle.

Wartrace is hoping to approve the contract with TUB during its May meeting, submit the construction plans to the state for approval and advertise the bids. Bids would be opened in June and the construction contract would have a 60 day window.

They hope that the water line to TUB would be completed by August 31.

Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) official David Money attended the meeting to answer any questions and stated that no contamination was found in the water supply, but that the boil water order was enacted as a precaution.

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(T-G Video by Brian Mosely)

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However, before the board agreed to the resolution, alderman Pasty Gregory said that she worried that Wartrace would lose one of its best qualities, the taste of the water from Cascade Springs.

Money said that no matter what the town does, the taste would be gone due to either the TDEC requirement of a filtration plant or when the water is treated by Tullahoma.

"After 18 months, if there is no filtration plant in place, Wartrace would be violating the clean water act," Money said. He also stated that a hookup to Tullahoma's water system "should have been done years ago."

Gallagher said Monday that "it's been a rough couple of weeks," and related that the past month had been an eventful one when it came to Wartrace's water. On March 3, the Wartrace Water Board proposed a $2.3 million dollar rehabilitation project be undertaken for the aging system, which was constructed in the mid 1930s.

However, that same week, the town received notice from the that the turbidity level has exceeded 1.0 and Wartrace was directed to construct a filtration plant by the fall of 2009.

On March 10, the rehab project was shelved and the consideration for the filtration plant begun, which had already been a part of their long range plan. The initial estimate for the plant was $3 million, plus consideration that additional operation costs would be incurred. The plant would have also required a Grade III Water Treatment Operator.

Gallagher said that the main shortcoming the town encountered was finding way to quickly contact all of its water customers. While town officials notified schools, businesses and the media, they soon realized that not everyone listens to the radio, has Internet access or reads the newspaper.

The mayor also said while officials did not think to contact Nashville television stations, others in the community did, which led to the false impression that Wartrace was keeping information from the public. Also, inaccurate information was aired on Nashville news stations which stated that sewage had gotten into the water supply.

Gallagher said that a better phone system is needed for city hall, which only has three lines, with one used for dial up Internet access. The mayor has been consulting with Scott Johnson of the county's Emergency Management Agency about developing a "phone tree" which would automatically Inform customers of any information they need during an emergency.

Money stated that Wartrace "went beyond federal requirements" in its efforts to notify the public.