The Cookeville Water Plant expansion is nearing completion, with a water capacity increase of some 50 percent to meet the demands of a growing population.
Director Barry Turner said the project is currently finishing up about one year behind its original schedule. Turner said the facility serves approximately 110,000 people across Putnam County and several surrounding counties through various utility districts.
“In order to accommodate that additional capacity we had to increase the amount of chemical storage, including carbon, which we feed for taste and odor,” Turner said. “Some of the systems that we had or equipment that we had was outdated, so we had to upgrade it. So it’s really, you know, adding 50 percent to the capacity was the main reason, but we’ve updated a lot of other things as well.”
Turner said work focused on finishing up some electrical work, some painting, and final pieces to get the expanded plant fully operational.
“Well, throughout the project we’ve had several different problems,” Turner said. “One, you know, getting pipe at the very start because that was sort of about the time COVID was going on. But here on the later end, it’s some of the controls and getting different components to communicate with each other.”
Turner said the department has successfully resolved the compatibility issues and is currently finishing electrical work and bringing the final filters online.
Turner said the expansion increases the plant’s daily capacity from 15 million gallons to 22.5 million gallons. Turner said this increase is intended to accommodate the growth occurring within the existing service territory rather than expanding into new areas.
“Somewhat depends on what type of water users we bring in as far as industry, and we try to watch and not bring a large water user in,” Turner said. “But I think it’d really be about 20 years capacity.”