LaDue Bouldin

A $500,000 grant could help forge a water link between the Tennessee River at South Pittsburg and Monteagle and Tracy City on the Cumberland Plateau, officials said.

The Appalachian Regional Commission grant, recommended by Gov. Phil Bredesen this week, could go toward the $11.2 million first phase of the project, Grundy County Mayor LaDue “Boo” Bouldin said.

“That is the first of many (grants) we’ve applied for,” Mr. Bouldin said. The county has applied for a Community Development Block Grant and officials will discuss other funding ideas with USDA Rural Development, he said.

“We realize it will probably take at least two years, if not three, to put together the appropriations for phase one,” he said. It could take “four to five years” to go from bidding to a finished project, Mr. Bouldin said.

He said later phases to extend water supplies deeper into the county will be “demand-driven, as we need the water.”

Grundy’s is one of 17 recommended ARC grants, but the projects must pass muster with federal agencies before any money is awarded, according to the governor’s news release.

Officials on the Cumberland Plateau have been eying the South Pittsburg connection in Marion County since last year’s drought dried up most reservoirs on the mountaintop. Besides South Pittsburg, Chattanooga’s Tennessee-American Water Co. is the only utility capable of providing emergency supplies from the Tennessee River, officials said.

South Pittsburg has no shortage of water and is already working to upgrade sits water system, officials said.

The water plant can supply the plateau with about 300,000 gallons a day now. Upgrades will boost capacity to 4 million gallons a day over the next three or four years, said Larry Jones, chief operator for the town’s utility.

Mr. Jones said South Pittsburg really needs to complete the upgrade to meet future demand.

“It’ll be an ongoing venture for South Pittsburg,” he said.

Monteagle Mayor Charles Rollins said work last year to link a water source to one of the town’s reservoirs will become a permanent part of the connection project.

Mr. Rollins said he’s worried about water levels again.

“We’re already seeing the drought set in us,” he said. “We’re watching our reservoir come down almost daily, again.”

He said a couple of inches of rain in the next few days could raise the reservoir to normal levels again. Otherwise, the summer heat could start boiling away the town’s water again, he said.

Levels last year were so low city workers mowed the reservoir.

Mr. Rollins hopes funding is released soon, “because we need to keep this project moving as rapidly as we possibly can.”

Tracy City Public Utility General Manager Tommy McFarland, who recently pitched his own idea of raising Tracy City’s reservoir dam to hold more water, said the state and the University of the South are conducting studies for long-term goals on the plateau.

“The Tennessee River may not be the most feasible thing, once we look at everything,” Mr. McFarland said.

He said he hopes grant money can be shifted elsewhere if ARC funding is released and studies point to a different solution.