Bell Buckle faces water problems

That's the word from the Bell Buckle board of mayor and aldermen, which has been less than pleased with the town's water situation since the changeover to the Tullahoma water source.

"Our water rate from Wartrace has gone from $1.55 to $2.50 (per thousand gallons). That is substantial," said Mayor Dennis Webb at the Tuesday night meeting.

The rate hike was not unexpected, since that town is also having to pay more for its water, and the amount was announced some time ago. What was unexpected, however, was Bell Buckle having to continue to use the Bedford County Utility District heavily as a secondary source of water at a much higher rate of $4 per thousand gallons.

"We thought the guys in Wartrace were going to be providing us 100 percent and they have not," said Webb. "If we have to pay $2.50 to Wartrace and $4 to BCUD -- that's not sustainable."

In the past, BCUD has offered the town a contract charging them $2.55 per thousand gallons for three years as the primary water supplier. The board put the offer on hold until the Wartrace connection was complete, waiting to see how it worked as far as cost and supply.

According to Ronnie Lokey, supervisor of the water department, When Wartrace first connected to TUB, it was at a pressure rate of 65 pounds per square inch. That was dropped to 60 psi after some lines broke. Bell Buckle was not able to get 100 percent of its water from Wartrace and Bryan Smith, head of the Wartrace water department, "bumped it up" a little. The 100 percent supply was maintained for a while, but the pressure dropped in the past few days and Lokey said neither he nor the Wartrace water department have figured out why.

Webb suggested they give Wartrace 30 days to see if the water supply can be maintained consistently at 100 percent, and if not, the board would have to seriously reconsider the BCUD offer. At the Wartrace board meeting Monday night, Mayor Don Gallagher had stressed the importance of the Bell Buckle situation and said it was a top priority.

Representatives from BCUD were on hand to answer questions. One question was about the presence of THMs (trihalomethanes). These are particles formed when chlorine attaches itself to organic matter. The older water is, and the farther down the line, the more THMs can form. The allowable limit is .060.

In the past, the BCUD THM count was much higher than Tullahoma's, largely because of the charcoal filtering system used by TUB. But, said Clay Hill of BCUD, that has changed since BCUD began a line-flushing program.

"Now, it's about .054, about as low as you can get," said Hill.

"Those numbers are very good, comparable to what Wartrace is sending us," said Lokey.

But the contract with BCUD would not lock in the price at $2.55 per gallon. If BCUD had to comply with a state-issued mandate to upgrade its system, it would have to assess the cost along to all of its customers, including Bell Buckle. Marty Davis of BCUD said he did not foresee any such upgrades in the first three years of the proposed contract.

Alderwoman Annie Rooney said Wartrace's failure to offer a contract and its "arbitrary" rate hike did not give her a lot of faith in that system while Alderman James Anderson stressed the long history and relationship between the two towns ("Although not always rosy," he said) and that Bell Buckle was very important to Wartrace as a customer. He said his preference would be to stay with Wartrace, but not if it became too costly because of having to use BCUD as a secondary water source.