NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — After years of conservationists sounding the alarm about the low water levels of the Duck River, the state has a plan for a new water pipeline.
Additional details were revealed Tuesday by Tennessee's Finance and Administration Commissioner Jim Bryson during a budget presentation on Tennessee's Capitol Hill. "There is a plan on the table to bring a water line from the Cumberland River down to the Columbia area to serve that entire region," said Bryson.
How we got here
This past summer, the Duck River had double trouble. An extreme drought lowered water levels. At the same time, several water utility companies drew even more water out of the watershed as they tried to keep up with the demand of their growing communities.
The result — a shoreline usually teaming with life became a graveyard of dead organisms. "Picking up all the fresh dead animals, mussel shells," Don Hubbs, a retired TWRA Malacologist, told us last summer. "They’re left high and dry. If they can’t move to the water or they can’t burrow down to it, then they get desiccated."
The Southern Environmental Law Center took the water rights case to court.
The short-term solution
To address the problem, Governor Bill Lee signed an executive order that creates a planning partnership for the Duck River. It will allow conservationists and utility companies to meet together to discuss a way to strike the right balance on water usage in the short term.
The Southern Environmental Law Center and water utility companies also agreed to a legal settlement. If we have another drought, utility companies will have to adopt voluntary water conservation measures and monitor their levels of water loss. "Fix leaking pipes, so we’re not pumping river out of the water and then allowing it to leak into the ground unused," said George Nolan, the Tennessee director of the Southern Environmental Law Center. "If they are experiencing loss that’s above the level in the permit, they’re required to come up with a plan as to how they’re going to fix the leaks in their system."
The long-term solution
As a part of the Governor's 2026 Fiscal Year budget, the state is providing $100 million towards seed money for a water pipeline that brings in water from the Cumberland River down towards the Maury County area. The pipeline would not feed into the Duck River, but would provide utility companies with the water they need to service their customers.
"Southern Middle Tennessee is growing very rapidly, and there’s a lot of need for more and more water as the region grows," Bryson Testified. "The Duck River will not be able to support that region in the long term."
The rest of the money for the pipeline will be funded by the utility companies that will use it to provide water for their communities. "They will come up with the additional funds to be able to complete it and serve that region," said Bryson. "It also will serve to take pressure off the Duck River and preserve one of Tennessee’s treasures."
At the beginning of the process, the state also considered drawing water out of the Tennessee River, but that pipeline would have likely been a lot longer. Bryson did not provide a timeline for when the pipeline would be able to become operational.
Do you have more information about this story? You can email me at Chris.Davis@NewsChannel5.com.
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