Jefferson County Mayor Mark Potts has declared a State of Emergency due to an issue at Jefferson City Utilities that is leaving customers in Jefferson City as well as New Market and Shady Grove Utilities without water.

The City issued the following statement:

“Earlier today, the Jefferson City Utilities implemented a game plan to temporarily cutoff Shady Grove Utilities while continuing restricted usage for New Market Utilities to maintain water supply to our local Tennova hospital.

“Our team is closely monitoring and will assess in the morning if tank levels have recovered enough to allow wholesalers to slowly pull more water from our system.

“This plan includes cleaning of our filtration membranes to help boost production.

“Since approximately 9AM this morning, tank levels have greatly improved, some tanks are seeing more water than they have seen in a couple of weeks.

“We are in a 10-year contract with Veolia for our ZW1000  filtration membranes. After issuing an emergency purchase order to replace our faulty membranes, the initial estimated lead time for delivery was 16 weeks (4 months), but would work on expediting delivery. We’ve heard back today that they can reroute 1 membrane to us sometime next week. Second membrane replacement delivery is still to be determined.

“We have been in touch with Jefferson County EMA and County Mayor Mark Potts has issued a State of Emergency in order to help mobilize resources quickly, as needed, while we work to get our water supply back to normal levels. Our team is actively working on sourcing a portable water filtration system to assist in boosting water production to refill our tanks quicker in the short term.

“In the meantime, our Parks and Recreation Department has opened up the Community Center for showering needs and our Public Works Department is opening up the Water Treatment Plant to fill bulk water containers between the hours of 7a.m. to 3 p.m. Public Works does ask that you call ahead first at (865) 475-3251.”

 Previously

Jefferson City is currently experiencing “low water tank levels” that have resulted in low/no pressure in the city and for its wholesale customers.

Workers in the city’s Utilities Division believe to have narrowed down the cause as being a faulty filtration membrane at the water treatment plant and it appears that the resolution is “not expected to be a quick fix while we wait on replacement membranes or find a way to repair our current ones.”

“We have also taken steps to communicate with our wholesale buyers, Shady Grove Utility District and New Market Utilities District, to minimize their flow from our tanks while we take steps to recover,” a statement from the city said. “Extreme weather has exacerbated the situation. We do ask our customers, and those supplied by our wholesalers, to please conserve water where possible.”

The city has contacted its vendor and requested expedited delivery for needed parts.

“We do apologize for the inconvenience, and we thank you for your understanding as we try to figure out how best to remedy this situation in the short-term while working towards a long-term solution.”

The NMUD is encouraging its members to conserve water.

The Utility says that once the water tanks are empty, the supply will be gone until the situation is fixed.  There is no time frame for it to be fixed.

Customers are advised should water run out, they should turn off their water heaters. Failure to do so will cause heater elements to burn out. Once water service returns, water heaters may be turned on.

The New Market Fire Department is working with automatic and mutual aid departments to deploy tanker trucks to any confirmed structure while implementing measures to establish a reliable water supply for effective firefighting capabilities.