Cookeville To Purchase Carbon For Water Treatment Plant

Cookeville City Council approved a $17,384 emergency purchase of carbon for the water treatment plant at their meeting Thursday night.

Water and Sewer Department Director Ronnie Kelly said that carbon prevents the treated lake water from having a musty, earthy taste.

“Carbon absorbs some of the taste compounds of algae in the lake,” Kelly said. “It comes in, we treat it, it’ll rupture the cells that release the taste and odor compounds. Powdered activated carbon will absorb those compounds, which is why it’s critical for us to have it.”

Kelly said that a lack of carbon does not pose any danger to those who consume the water. He said that the presence of carbon in the plant is strictly for absorption purposes and does not remain in the water.

“We put it in the water as we settle everything out,” Kelly said. “It just settles out and we recirculate it back to some holding pods. So no all it does is absorb things, it’s not in the water.”

Kelly said that the need arose from transportation issues with the previous provider. He said that the water treatment plant reduced the carbon use until they could get the future carbon in, but would have run out before this purchase.

“Our prior bidder was going to quit delivering to water plants,” Kelly said. “They had specifically wanted to go to the car industry for their carbon. So we went out to bid again, and we only received one bidder that met the specs. When we started talking to them about delivery, their delivery got backlogged so it was going to be another three weeks from where we needed it.”

According to a quote from Aulic Chemical Solutions, the purchase includes 10,600 pounds of powdered activated carbon.

In other business, the council approved the city to enter an agreement with Lose Design to conduct a feasibility study for a possible indoor ice center. Leisure Services Director Rick Woods said that the $88,500 study would take approximately 12-15 weeks to complete.

Council member Mark Miller said that he wanted to make sure the community understood that the ice center and the aquatic center were separate projects.

“It’s not that we’re doing one and not the other or vice versa,” Miller said. “We’re just looking at the feasibility study right now to see if an ice center is feasible for the city.”

Council also approved a request from the Public Building Authority to purchase carpet replacement at the Leslie Town Centre. City Manager James Mills said that the Public Building Authority had low reserves due to the pandemic and did not have sufficient funds to pay for the replacement. He said that he concurred with the need for new carpeting, as the state of the current carpet could impact the ability to rent out the space.

Mills said that a possible insurance plan could cover up to $10,000 of the $35,000 cost. He said that in helping the Public Building Authority pay for the carpet replacement, the city would forego the rental fee it pays for the Father-Daughter Dance until the city is refunded.

City council also moved forward on the first reading of an ordinance rezoning a portion of 439 East 6th Street and a portion of 535 North Washington Avenue from an RS-15 zone to an RS-10 zone. Both zones are single-family residential zones.