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Knox County water official details pump upgrades, meter fixes and plan to develop Well 7
Summary
Jeff, the county’s water and wastewater representative, told commissioners the Harborview pump station will get new pumps (adding roughly 35–40 gpm), the county bought a new trackhoe for about $38,000 after trade‑ins, a two‑phase project to develop Well 7 will start with drilling and EPA PTI testing, and the county is migrating billing software to handle new 9‑digit meter IDs.
Jeff, the Knox County Water and Wastewater representative, told commissioners on Oct. 21 that crews will install upgraded pumps at the Harborview pump station as soon as the next day and expect the change to increase pumping capacity by about 35 to 40 gallons per minute, a move aimed at reducing backups into homes during wet weather.
He said the department discovered velocities in force mains were too low and that the new pumps, together with repairs to leaking laterals, should move more water to the plant and cut customer complaints. The work is constrained by existing single‑phase power at the site; larger pumps would require a major power upgrade.
Jeff also described recent equipment purchases and operations. The county negotiated a trade to acquire a new New Holland E50D trackhoe; the out‑of‑pocket cost is roughly $38,000 compared with a retail price near $109,000. He praised a recently used batcher truck that enabled crews to repair a water leak in roughly two hours.
On system resiliency, Jeff outlined a two‑phase plan to develop Well 7. Phase 1 will drill the hole and perform pump, flow and chemical testing; the department will submit a PTI (permit to install) to the EPA after testing. Phase 2 will bid and install piping, electrical work, controls and tie the well into county systems after PTI approval. He said the county hopes to have phase‑2 work underway next spring and aimed to have Well 6 online by June peak season.
Jeff briefed the board on a planned maintenance operation: the smaller Apple Valley tank (about 100,000 gallons) is scheduled for draining and a full clean beginning about Oct. 30; the larger 500,000‑gallon tank will be inspected with a remote rover camera to limit full drainage. Both tanks will be heavily chlorinated and require bacteria sampling before returning to service.
On billing and metering, Jeff said the county is migrating to updated billing software because legacy systems are losing vendor support. New meters use 9‑digit IDs that the old billing system could not parse, forcing staff to enter reads manually and costing revenue. The county plans software and process changes so new meters—the higher‑end “alley” meters—will allow remote shutoffs, pressure monitoring and faster leak detection. He described daily monitoring reports that flag continuous consumption (25 hours) so crews can respond before bills or property damage escalate.
Jeff presented water‑loss metrics showing substantial improvement: recent monthly loss percentages dropped to about 21%, 19% and 6% after meter installs and leak remediation, versus historic rates in the 60% range. He said industry targets are nearer 15% and flagged aging pipes and meter accuracy as ongoing contributors to loss.
The board thanked Jeff for the overview; no formal action was required on the operations items. The next steps are the software migration, continued well testing and the scheduled tank maintenance.
