Officials Have Tried Solving Cumberland’s Water Issues For Several years

Cumberland County has been in need of a larger water source for some two decades to accommodate the growth of the community.

Everett Bolin has served as the Crab Orchard Utility District General Manager for 19 years. He said county leaders have been working on a regional concept to solve the issue since 1995.

“The former mayor back then Brook Hill seen it before I ever came here and in 95′ he tried to get a regional water authority started,” Bolin said. “Lamar Alexander gave him some money for the Corp of engineers to do the studies and all that.”

Bolin said for a long time, TDEC has indicated that another impoundment would not come to the Cumberland Plateau. Bolin said since then former Governor Bill Haslam did a statewide study on water needs and shared that establishing a new water source could come through a regional water authority board.

“Working with TDEC and everybody trying to get it, and they’ve told me now there is a possibility,” Bolin said. “Bill Haslam’s study showed that you need a regional concept. Not so many little utilities. They don’t want to give a little utility a little water. They want us to all work together.”

Bolin said the water issues of Cumberland County are due to its geography. Bolin said the county rests on a mountain, so rain water usually runs to lower land. At the same time, the area lacks bodies of water.

“We get ours from Stone Lake close to Fairfield, and we have a treatment plant out there,” Bolin said. “The lake will produce about 2 million galloons a day and we have a treatment plant that will do 4 but our water supply will just produce 2. So, when it gets dry and droughts it gets low.”

Bolin said the most recent case of drought was in 2018 when water supply was low causing limits on residential use.