News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
City of Cookeville awarded some $5.3 million from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation for the water treatment plant project.
Cookeville was one of three Upper Cumberland cities to receive the funding, including Byrdstown and McMinnville. Cookeville Water Quality Control Director Barry Turner said the funding will help cover the increase in the project’s price since it was originally approved.
“The way things have increased that project is now over budget and this $5 million will go a long way towards keeping the rates down” “even with that there will still be a gap that we’ll need to find additional funding on. But without it, it would be a big increase on water rates.”
Turner said the city originally took out a $17.5 million loan. He said that estimate included construction as well as a little over a million for engineering and inspection. The bid for construction came in at $25,427,000.
“It will be a 50 percent addition to the capacity down there,” Turner said. “So we’re going from 15 (millions of gallons per day) to about 22.5 mgd of capacity. We’re also going to be rehabbing some things down there, like the carbon feed that we have for taste and odor control.”
Turner said that once the plant starts to hit around 80 percent capacity, the state wants departments to explore expansion. He said that because a majority of the county relies on Cookeville for water treatment, this project has been in the works for some time.
