News Briefs: Chattanooga Residents Wait for Answers On Last Year's Water Outage

Also in this week's sewer and water news, Olivenhain (California) Municipal Water District’s Recycled Water Pipeline Extension 153A was recognized as a 2020 Project of the Year by the San Diego and Imperial County Chapter of the American Public Works Association

It’s been a year since a water outage in Chattanooga, Tennessee, left 35,000 buildings without water for several days. Now, Tennessee American Water is saying it won’t release information about that incident due to ongoing litigation, according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

“As Tennessee American continues to defend itself against the litigation, we thought it important to inform you that we will not provide the ongoing evaluation of the service interruption when completed,” the utility shared in a statement. “Tennessee American Water will continue to evaluate decisions against the backdrop of the pending litigation.”

Meanwhile, the city’s mayor, Andy Berke, says officials told him the cause of the outage would be released. “Over the last year, Tennessee American Water has repeatedly told me and their ratepayers that they would share its analysis of last year's water main break,” Berke said to Chattanooga Times Free Press. “Tennessee American Water owes us an explanation of the causes of the main break and why the report has not been released.”

California Water District Wins Project of the Year

Olivenhain (California) Municipal Water District’s Recycled Water Pipeline Extension 153A was recognized  as a 2020 Project of the Year by the San Diego and Imperial County Chapter of the American Public Works Association at its virtual awards event.

The pipeline connected the Surf Cup Sports youth soccer fields in San Diego to OMWD’s recycled water distribution system. By allowing Surf Cup to convert the irrigation of 55 acres of grass fields to recycled water, OMWD has reduced potable water demands for irrigation by up to 100 million gallons per year.

“OMWD’s board is honored to receive this award for a collaborative project, which expanded the use of recycled water while protecting the environment,” says OMWD Board Treasurer Larry Watt. “Additionally, state grant funding helped pay for the project, reducing costs for our ratepayers.”

The project involved the installation of 1,600 feet of 8-inch PVC pipeline that required specialized drilling and interagency cooperation to be completed. The pipeline needed to cross the San Dieguito River, causing design, permitting and construction obstacles. OMWD’s design team elected to use horizontal directional drilling to install the pipeline more than sixty feet below the river bottom.



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