Cookeville Department of Water Quality Control’s water system has earned a perfect score on its latest sanitary survey conducted by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.
Water Quality Control Director Barry Turner said the survey is a comprehensive inspection of the entire water system, from the source at Center Hill Lake to the water delivered at customers’ homes. Turner said a perfect score means the water system is pristine.
“Well, that’s why I want to bring it up, because we are proud of it, and I want the citizens to know that we put the effort in there and try to deliver a good quality water at a reasonable price,” Turner said.
Turner said Cookeville has received a perfect score a few times before. Turner said he is proud of his department for achieving the accomplishment once again.
“It’s a group effort, just a whole team effort where everybody in the department works together, cause any little thing they can take off a point, you know, so just across the board, just proud of everybody in the department,” Turner said.
Turner said Cookeville was one percent off a perfect score last year. He said a minor issue with vegetation around tank sites contributed to that deduction and has since been addressed.
“Last year, I think the thing that docked us was tree limbs at the tank sites hanging over the fence,” Turner said. “So we improved the fencing around that, but we’ve kept up with everything else that we were doing.”
The Department of Water Quality Control’s perfect score will be recognized at this Thursday’s City Council meeting.
Water Quality Control currently serves an estimated 16,000 metered customers along with seven wholesale customers which include Algood, Baxter, Cookeville Boat Dock Road Utility District, Old Gainesboro Road Utility District, Bangham Utility District, Double Springs Utility District, and the O’Conner Utility District.