The question came from Cumberland County Commissioner Sue York.
“If you’re elected to the Council, how do you feel about the new water authority that’s been developed?” asked the commissioner, who represents the county’s 1st District, during the Crossville City Council candidates forum at Cumberland County Playhouse.
The Cumberland Plateau Water Authority was created in 2022 by the Tennessee General Assembly to work with utility districts on regional projects to address water supply for the landlocked county that’s attracting new residents by the day.
Crossville has the largest water district in the county. It and Crab Orchard Utility District are also the only ones with water supply lakes and water treatment plants. No district is obligated to join the authority.
Following are excerpts of the candidates’ answers to the question:
Kris Cole: “The only thing I can say is I’ve heard they’ve been working really hard, but I haven’t had any experience with them just yet. … Making a water authority’s already step up in the right direction toward facing the water issues that we have.”
Mark Fox: “I think Crossville by definition is already the water authority. … I think the water department in Crossville probably impacts the majority in some way or another of all of our Crossville departments. Giving up that autonomy or giving it up to the point where the main contributor to the water authority does not have a controlling interest … that just doesn’t add up to me. I would have to learn more about what’s at stake. … I think it’s a work in progress, but I don’t think it’s near completion yet.”
J.H. Graham III: “There are no conditions in which I would condone or support giving up $150 million worth of replaceable assets of the city of Crossville’s water department nor the water rights to Holiday Lake, Lake Tansi or Meadow Park Lake. I fear if these assets are donated or leased or sold to the water authority, the current employees would lose their jobs and their benefits, and I cannot for the life of me understand why we would do something like that if we only have three votes of the total of seven on the authority.”
Rob Harrison: “I’ve gone to almost all the water authority meetings. I like to try to understand what’s driving these things. I think that the state is trying to encourage regionalization. … I was talking to Randall Kidwell, and his dad started Catoosa Water District, I believe. … He compiled a list of 50 different studies back in 1988 that were done on the Plateau, and I encouraged him to let me put on the city website — and I have, we have. … There’s just a big long list of how crazy it’s been trying to get a new drinking water lake. There’s a whole lot of behind-the-scenes activity going on with this. There are all kinds of agencies that are blocking the expansion of Meadow Park Lake and trying to get a new drinking water lake here, Fish and Wildlife being one of the big ones. But the Park Service — it’s a laundry list of different agencies that are trying to stop us from just being able to catch the water before it goes off the mountain. They just want us to pump it back up the mountain. Randall suggested that if all these agencies would agree to allow us to build a new 5,000-acre drinking water lake — which I don’t think is going to happen — but if they would, then we ought to at least take a look at that for the sake of the whole area. I’m deeply concerned. The water and sewer’s a big part of the city. … I don’t like the voting being against us, but if by some miracle we could get all these agencies to say we’ll allow a 5,000-acre lake, then I would at least have to look at it and try to work something out to protect everybody and to look out for the greater good. I don’t think the odds of that are very likely, but I’d at least take a look.”
James Mayberry: “The water authority is a — it’s potentially a merger of all the utility districts, and if you had read the legislation that’s been approved — passed by the state, governor — that the employees are guaranteed to not lose any wages or anyone being fired, and they’ll all be allowed to have the TCRS insurance program. And it is voluntary. The other utilities don’t have to join in. Anybody can join in. But in the past, when the Catoosa merger was done, that’s when the city merged with Catoosa, there was a lot of talks about merger at that time. Catoosa has their own board, which gets paid the same amount as the City Council gets paid, they get the same benefits the City Council gets, they meet once a … month. Ultimately, all the decisions from that come back to the city of Crossville. The West Cumberland Utility District was approached at that time, and they got so upset that the plan that they decided to get their water from BonDeCroft, TN, and not even deal with city of Crossville. South Cumberland does still buy their water from Crossville. They have rejected going under Crossville’s wing several times as well. Crab Orchard Utility is supportive of this water authority. There’s potential of moving forward on that. Crossville is the biggest supplier. … That’s why Crossville does get three members of the board, and each of the other utility districts gets one member of the board. … It doesn’t appear — I don’t know for a fact, but it doesn’t seem like the city of Crossville’s going to ever be able to get to raise this dam without having formed a regional water system. It is in its infancy, and we’ll just have to see about the new development.”
Danny Wyatt: “If you’ve got the best water in the Southeast — storage and quality — and you have the best processing and distribution, why would you want to give it away? I disagree with Mr. Mayberry. We started in 2010 raising the dam of Meadow Park Lake. The Corps of Engineers basically signed off, said they’re good … I don’t think the state of Tennessee can stop you from raising Meadow Park Dam if you meet all the criteria, and about 90% of it’s already been met from what I … so, that’s my position.”
Go to crossvilletn.gov/water-documents to view the research compiled by Randall Kidwell.