By Katie Northcott, News Director
Randal Braker, General Manager at Duck River Utility Commission, is asking that customers continue to conserve water as DRUC’s system recovers after a repair to a main water transmission line on Monday, Feb. 9.
Find more information about the repair here.
In a comment to Peterson Media Group on Thursday, Feb. 12, Braker said that system recovery has been slow since the repair was completed Monday evening. At the time of his comment, Braker said DRUC’s storage capacity was at 37 percent.
“[DRUC crews] are working diligently to restore the system to full storage capacity. Unfortunately, progress has been slow and the Commission is asking for the public to continue water conservation for the next ten days,” Braker said.
He said that water usage in DRUC’s service is still higher than average. He reported that the Manchester Water and Sewer Department’s total demand is about 500,000 gallons per day higher than usual. Tullahoma’s total demand is about the same. DRUC pumped 7.5 million gallons yesterday when they usually pump around 6 to 6.5 million gallons per day during the winter.
The Tullahoma Utility Authority said in a Facebook post on Saturday, Feb. 7, that its demand was about 700,000 gallons per day higher than average. Yesterday, TUA reported that its crews repaired 15 water main breaks over the past week. Braker said that Tullahoma’s demand was slightly lower yesterday but that it is hard to forecast whether the demand will remain lower long-term.
Manchester Mayor Joey Hobbs said in a Facebook post on Tuesday, Feb. 10, that Manchester has not experienced increased water demand according to Manchester Water and Sewer Department Director Lonnie Foley. Two days earlier, Peterson Media Group had asked Hobbs for clarification since some of his information appears to be inconsistent with Braker’s statements and TUA’s posts.
Hobbs’ response, which was sent on Feb. 8, is copied below.
Thank you for reaching out regarding TUA’s misquote of my Mayoral Facebook post. Please note that I stated in my post that the leaky valve “is the cause of the 1,000,000 gallons of water loss.” NO WHERE in my post did I say or insinuate this was per day. I do not know why TUA added the “per day” to their post. You would have to check with them regarding that.
The fact that the supplier had a leaky valve and lost enough water to potentially disrupt our water supply is not in dispute. You would need to check with them as to the exact amount as an estimate is all that we had at the time. Again, this was not a “per-day” loss which is why I never referred to it as such. It is a cumulative amount from days of this leak.
Finally, I would like to say that the purpose of my post was to reassure our city. There were folks calling for the closing of car washes and laundry mats and so on. I wanted people to know that this was a repairable issue. I was very glad to see that TUA and Duck River Utility Commission acknowledged the leak after I posted. Until then, it was completely attributed to increased usage.
Peterson Media Group responded with the following email:
Thank you for your response. I believe the 1,000,000 gallons per day number came directly from DRUC. DRUC and TUA have maintained that there is increased usage across the service area. DRUC has indicated to me that the valve leak was causing about 100,000 gallons per day of water loss and the rest of the loss is likely due to breaks in city and residential water lines that occurred during the cold snap. If you have a source that has conflicting information, I would love to connect with them.
Hobbs did not respond to Peterson Media Group’s follow up email.
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