One year after a massive water outage left 35,000 Chattanooga businesses and households dry for several days, officials with Tennessee American Water say they won’t release information about the cause of the outage because of ongoing litigation.
“As Tennessee American continues to defend itself against the litigation, we thought it important to inform you that we will not provide the ongoing evaluation of the service interruption when completed,” utility officials wrote in a statement Friday afternoon. “Tennessee American Water will continue to evaluate decisions against the backdrop of the pending litigation.”
Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke said officials with the utility had assured him as recently as Aug. 18 that a report on the cause of the outage was forthcoming.
“Over the last year, Tennessee American Water has repeatedly told me and their ratepayers that they would share its analysis of last year’s water main break,” Berke said. “Tennessee American Water owes us an explanation of the causes of the main break and why the report has not been released.”
Within days of the outage, attorneys Van Bunch and Lee Davis filed a class action lawsuit against the utility. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of local residents and businesses, asks for compensation of any wage losses or business or economic losses as a result of the water company’s “conduct, acts, or omissions.” It also asks for the company to pay any court or attorney fees.