News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Cookeville Water Department wants the city council to approve a site suitability study for a wet weather storage facility.
Director Ronnie Kelly said this is necessary to alleviate water levels after storms along the main line to the Wastewater Treatment Plant.
“Water leaks into the sewage system and it fills up the pipe, and we’re trying to alleviate that surcharge condition with a wet weather storage facility,” Kelly said. “That would take that peak flow off, and then let it drain back into the system as the storm event goes by.”
Kelly said the suitability study will include roughly three storm models, site evaluations for the location of the facility, and additionally has the potential for future geotechnical studies.
The main line to the treatment plant along South Jefferson Avenue was constructed in 1982. Kelly said that over the years pipes get old and damaged and allow rainwater into the sanitary sewage pipes and take up space, and that this facility helps would help ease water flow after large storm events.
“It’s been in place a number of years and Cookeville’s grown a lot since that time–I think we went from five thousand to about fifteen thousand sewage customers,” Kelly said. “We’re just trying to–in doing modeling some modeling and observations we know that during certain rain events the pipes and that pipe does get full.”
Kelly said the site study itself could take up to four to five months, and the city would then need to bid out engineer designs, and then bid out the project itself.
Kelly said he is seeking authorization from the city council for City Manager James Mills to enter into an engineering contract with Gresham Smith and Partners for the site study that would cost roughly $149,452.
