Knox County water director details well drilling, repairs and planned force‑main cleaning

Jeff Picker, director of Knox County Water and Wastewater, told the Knox County Board of Commissioners on April 21 that crews are beginning line replacements at the PVA collection system to address inflow and infiltration identified by camera work and that work on Well Number 7 has started.

"We'll start working on that, to get some of that clean water out of that plant," Picker said, describing cracked tile, leaking laterals and other sources of groundwater that increase treatment volumes. He said crews have called locates and hoped to begin line replacements this week.

Picker said Well Number 7 is being drilled between the system's major wells (identified in the presentation as wells 3 and 6). The drilling contractor completed the first phase (drilling and sample collection) and the department will await lab results and perform pump and drawdown tests; those steps may extend into the week after the…