New Pikeville, Tenn., mayor Philip "Winky" Cagle was appointed Sept. 1, 2012, to fulfill the three-year, four-month unexpired term of former mayor Greg Johnson.The lingering drought's impact in the region is being felt at one Southeast Tennessee prison where water sources were switched around to maintain steady supplies.
That switch generated some gripes at the Bledsoe County prison about discolored, stinky water. There's distilled water for inmates with machines to treat sleep apnea, but prisoners have told family members their clothing is stained brown.
Tennessee Department of Correction spokeswoman Neysa Taylor said last week the water inmates are using at Bledsoe County Correctional Complex Unit 2 - the new name for the 270-bed older part of the facility that was opened in the early 1980s - does not present a health problem. She said the water was discolored because the connection with the water line supplied by the nearby Taft Water Treatment Plant hadn't been used in years.
"To help relieve the current water shortage in Bledsoe County, the city of Pikeville asked TDOC to reconnect the water line from the facility to the Taft Water Treatment Plant," Taylor said. "This line had not been used since a new water line from Pikeville was installed during the construction of the new facilities."
When the new $208 million, 1,500-bed prison was opened in January 2013 next door to what was then the Southeastern Tennessee State Regional Correctional Facility, Pikeville and the state agreed on a dedicated water line from the city's utility to the new prison that could provide up to 500,000 gallons a day.
The older Unit 2 facility had long been part of the Fall Creek Falls Utility District system, which gets its water from the state-owned Taft Water Treatment plant about a mile from the prison, but the older facility soon was linked to the new Pikeville line, too.
Meanwhile, officials said, that old line remained unused over the last couple of years.
In July, when Pikeville officials issued a conservation notice as water supplies dwindled, "TDOC reconnected the Taft line," Taylor said. "This process involved flushing the line to remove sediment. During this process the water supply was discolored slightly."
The water was tested for sediment levels "and those tests indicated the water does not exceed regulatory limits. The water is safe water for consumption," Taylor said.
"We expect the city of Pikeville's efforts to alleviate the shortage to be completed soon," she said. "At that time we will switch our entire complex back to the Pikeville supply."
"It's been a long, hot, dry, worrisome summer," Pikeville Mayor Phil Cagle said.
Cagle said the town's water utility is shoring up other connections and exploring alternate sources to make sure supplies are ample for the prison and 1,700 or so residential customers whom Cagle said are good water conservationists when called upon.
"The most we've pumped up there [to the prison] is about 300,000 gallons," Cagle said. The town's utility can buy water from nearby Dunlap and Dayton if the town's wells get too low. A new well project was launched this summer to offset the drought impact.
Earlier this month, Cagle visited the Taft treatment plant - transferred from state Department of Children's Services ownership to TDOC in 2012 when the century-old Taft Youth Development Center was shuttered amid state budget cuts - and found it in good condition, he said. The center and plant are about a mile from the prison compound.
Cagle said the plant looked "clean as a pin," and that "there's nothing wrong with the upkeep."
The treatment plant and Taft Youth Development Center, originally built in 1918 as the Tennessee Reformatory for Negro Boys, predate the old and new prisons by decades, according to TDOC historical records.
The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation said there was an anonymous complaint about water quality in August and water quality reports for the plant and Fall Creek Fall Utility District showed minerals that can change the water's color.
"TDEC has observed levels of manganese in the water system at Bledsoe County Correctional Complex," spokesman Eric Ward said in an emailed response about the prison's water quality. "The discoloration was observed at Unit 2, which at that time was being supplied by Taft.
"Manganese can discolor the water, but the levels found are not a health concern," Ward said. "We have not received any formal complaints, but we did receive an anonymous complaint about the discoloration on Aug. 26 related to the Bledsoe County Correctional Complex. We responded to the complaint on Sept. 1, and after operators flushed the system the discoloration issue improved."
Contact staff writer Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6569.