CUMBERLAND: The Tennessee General Assembly established the Cumberland Plateau Water Authority in 2022 to collaborate with utility districts on regional projects aimed at addressing the water supply for the landlocked county that is rapidly gaining more population. The county’s largest water district is located near Crossville.
It is the only one with water supply lakes and water treatment facilities, together with Crab Orchard Utility District. Joining the authority is not mandatory for any district. Here are snippets of the contenders’ responses to the query: “I haven’t had any experience with them yet, but I’ve heard they’ve been working really hard,” said Kris Cole.
Dominant Intrest
It just doesn’t make sense to me to give up that autonomy or to the extent that the primary contributor to the water authority does not have a dominant interest. I would need to find out more about the stakes. Though I don’t believe it is quite finished yet, I do believe it is a work in progress.J.H. Graham III: “I would not support or condone the surrender of the water rights to Holiday Lake, Lake Tansi, or Meadow Park Lake, or the $150 million worth of replaceable assets of the city of Crossville’s water department.
I worry that present employees would lose their employment and benefits if these assets were gifted, leased, or sold to the water authority. I find it incomprehensible that we would do such a thing when the authority only has three votes out of seven.
This involves a great deal of behind-the-scenes activity. Fish and Wildlife is one of the major organizations attempting to build a new drinking water lake here and preventing the growth of Meadow Park Lake. However, a number of entities within the Park Service are working to prevent us from just being able to obtain water.
There is a chance to proceed with that. The major provider is Crossville. This is the reason why Crossville has three board members and each of the other utility districts has one. It doesn’t seem like the city of Crossville will ever be able to raise this dam without first creating a regional water system, though I can’t say for sure.
The Corps of Engineers essentially gave their approval and said, “All right.” If you meet all the requirements, which, based on my understanding, have already been met to a degree of roughly 90%, I don’t think the state of Tennessee can prevent you from raising Meadow Park Dam. That’s my stance, then. View the combined study at crossvilletn.gov/water-documents.