Cookeville Water Department Deciding On Next Steps After Tank Ruptures At Water Plant

Cookeville Water Quality Control Department having to decide the next steps after a chemical storage tank recently ruptured.

Director Barry Turner said the 6,000-gallon tank held ferric chloride used at the water plant. He said the cause of the rupture is still being investigated, but have one possibility in mind.

“It used to have fluoride in it and it’s a fiberglass tank,” Turner said. “And it had another liner inside it to protect the fiberglass from the fluoride and we think that liner had failed and damaged the tank a little bit.”

Turner said the rupture caused the department to lose about 5,000 gallons of the substance. He said the department is going to have to replace the tank and other items damaged by the spill.

Turner said because of how the water plant building is constructed, they will potentially have to remove the roof in order to get a new tank in. He said they believe this was an isolated incident and does not have a negative impact on the city’s water.

“We have five other tanks in that building and they’re all the same age,” Turner said. “And we think everything is fine with those, that it was just this one tank.”