Spencer’s various water system improvements are still on schedule for 2026 completion after construction began several months ago.
Warren County Utility District General Manager Anthony Pelham said the Utility District currently has four different contractors at four different sites, and they are all progressing well. Pelham said initial blasting took a lot of time.
“That is now finished,” Pelham said. “We have the excavation down to the depth as needed is complete, and we are working on the next phase will be pouring concrete and starting to build the wet well at the intake pump station, and that is in process as we speak.”
Pelham said the intermediate pump station halfway up the hill is around 70 percent complete, and the waterline project on the south side of the city is over halfway done. Pelham said the next steps will be migrating operations from the current Water Treatment Plant to the new one.
“That process will be kind of a choreographed migration or a move, it’s not really a dance, but we can’t just shut the system down for a month, change everything over, and start the new one up,” Pelham said. “We still have to maintain service to all customers every day, and so it does have to be a very coordinated effort with minimal disruption to service to all the existing customers. We try to keep those to less than 24 hours, actually try to keep those less than four hours of any disruption to service.”
The new treatment plant and intake will take water from the Caney Fork River instead of the City Lake. Pelham said once the improvements are completed, it will be a big win not only for Spencer but for Van Buren County.
“We think it will give us the tools where we can satisfy the quality issues that have been long-standing in Van Buren County, make sure that the water is safe, dependable, and of a nature that is high and capable of meeting all of the regulations that are necessary by the state, and provide dependable service.”