December 6, 2023 - Environmental Concerns Could Lead to Shelbyville Water Shortages
At Tuesday evening's Shelbyville City Council Study Session, Director of Planning and Community Development Waleed Albakry delivered concerning news to the city council. He stated that he had been notified two weeks ago by Shelbyville Power, Water and Sewer Systems (SPWSS) of a potential limitation to their ability to withdraw water from the Duck River. The limitation would reduce the amount of daily water intake for all of Shelbyville as SPWSS is the only provider of water and sewer for the city. SPWSS has a permit request currently pending with the Tennessee Department of Environment & Conservation (TDEC) requesting the ability to withdraw up to 8.35 million gallons of water per day from the Duck River. Mr. Albakry stated that current usage by the city is over 7 million gallons per day, and the water treatment plant has the capacity to process as much as 10 million gallons per day. The 7 million gallons per day does not include all the future development that has already been approved. However, one of the stipulations being requested by TDEC is that the usage limit drop to 6.04 million gallons of water on days that the flow of the Duck River drops below 175 CFS. This currently happens around 20 days per year. If this usage limit were to go into effect, there could be days that SPWSS would be in violation of their permit and lead to enforcement actions by TDEC or possible legal actions by environmental groups. Such restrictions would impact current and future residents and could lead to low water situations which would harm fire protection and other essential services of the government. As part of a draft letter from the city to TDEC provided to Shelbyville NOW, the city states that this type of intake cap could seriously impact the ability to provide water for growth that has already been approved and is in progress. From 2019 to 2023 the city approved 1,950 new residential lots for development. In addition, planning is currently at various stages for an additional 2,500 residential units and 100,000+ square feet of new commercial space. City Attorney Ginger Shofner asked Mr. Albakry if there was a fallback plan of any kind if the state insists on the new limits. He stated that from everything he has seen so far, there is no Plan B at the moment. Mr. Albakry requested that any city officials that are able to please attend the next public meeting by TDEC to plead the city's case and request these new intake limits not be implemented. Shelbyville NOW will continue to stay on top of this situation and report any updates as they are available. |
