JOHN COFFELTEditor

The Duck River Utilities Commission is currently working to fund an $11 million upgrade to the water plant that provides drinking water to the cities of Manchester and Tullahoma.

DRUC General Manager Randal Braker approached the Manchester Board of Mayor and Aldermen during the the July 2 meeting to request the city vote to free up $3 million from a trust fund funded through a voluntary $0.05 fee on each 1,000 gallons of water the city buys from the plant.

The trust fund is managed by the state and requires a majority vote by all the water system boards. The Duck River Association board has approved the allocation as has the membership board of water system managers, the Duck River Technical Advisory Council, has approved the transfer too.

The project is to upgrade the water intake facility on Normandy Reservoir to make it more drought resilient. Upgrades include replacing the pumps in the intake facility as well as upgrades in the plant.

“The project is over $11 million, but we have obtained an (American Recovery Plan) grant from the state to fund the rest,” Braker said. “We will be funding the matching (portion) directly from the DRUC fund.”

Starting July 1, the structure of the five-cent fee changed from a voluntary contribution to a mandatory. Entities with withdraw permits from the Duck River now are required to pay the five cents per 1,000 gallons. That means DRUC will be charged the fee and then pass that cost to Manchester Water Department and the other utilities that it sells water to.

“All those nickels will go to the Duck River Development Agency for other infrastructure projects and basically rebuild the trust fund,” Braker said.

He added that Manchester pays the lowest water rate in the state and gets the highest quality water in the state.

According to Braker the project will not impact water rates in the city.

The DRUC water plant, located adjacent to TVA Public Land on JD Neil Road, uses an advanced micro-filtration system.

John has been with the Manchester Times since May 2011. John has won Tennessee Press Association awards for Best News Photo and placed in numerous other categories. John is a 1994 graduate of Tullahoma High School, a graduate of Motlow State Community College and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Middle Tennessee State University. He lives in Tullahoma, enjoys painting, dancing and exploring the outdoors.