Water authority urges regionalization; resident pushes Meadow Park raise and demands transparency

Jeff, general manager of the Cumberland Plateau Water Authority, told the Crossville City Council that regionalizing water and sewer services across the Cumberland Plateau could help utilities access grants, reduce duplicated costs and protect customers from steep rate increases for large projects.

"We want to work with everyone," Jeff said, describing a three-step approach: continue operating existing utilities, negotiate mergers and pursue a regional water resource. He said the authority became an official regional entity after Crab Orchard Utility joined and that the enabling act protects employees in any merger, including maintaining pay and benefits tied to current positions.

The nut of the debate centered on Meadow Park Lake and broader supply options. A resident who identified himself during public comment urged the council to "raise Meadow Park Lakebank" — earlier discussions had suggested raising the lake by as much as 20 feet and later roughly 18 feet — and to pursue the maximum practical increase to protect the treatment plant. The commenter also demanded that any meetings between council members and state or federal regulators be public and said he was making a public records request for maps or coordinates for any proposed dam or reservoir.

Jeff said Meadow Park has been studied and "is the lowest-hanging fruit" for local supply, but he cautioned it may not be the ultimate regional solution. He said recent conversations with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) and the Army Corps of Engineers indicate the Corps wants proof that no other viable options exist before approving a large federal project. To that end, Jeff said the authority is pursuing a broader regional feasibility study with the Corps to identify shared solutions and the players willing to participate.

Council members pressed Jeff on assets and liabilities. The meeting transcript records the council discussing Crossville's roughly $200,000,000 in water and sewer assets; Jeff replied that when a utility merges into the authority, assets, debts and liabilities generally move with the customers and that the authority would assume those liabilities as part of a negotiated merger. Jeff said regionalization can allow large projects to be distributed across a wider customer base and pointed to state comptroller involvement in financial analyses.

On costs, Jeff offered modeling examples discussed at the meeting: he cited combined-debt-per-customer figures that, using the numbers he had, could fall by roughly $1,000 per customer after consolidation and operational efficiencies (the transcript quoted a projected combined-debt figure of about $1,183 per customer in one scenario). He also referenced prior engineering comments estimating a Meadow Park raising at approximately $60,000,000 and warned that major reservoir projects could tack tens of millions more onto existing debt if pursued alone.

Legal and process questions surfaced: a meeting participant reviewing the city charter said the sale or lease of Meadow Park Lake property (described in the charter as city-owned land contiguous to the lake) would require advertisement and could trigger a referendum if 10% of qualified city voters object, and that the city had sought an opinion from MCAS on the point.

Council members raised operational concerns — equipment storage, hydrant testing and fire protection, and whether sewer expansion would reach unserved properties — and Jeff said those details would be part of the financial and operational analyses done before any merger. Jeff emphasized the authority’s position that no takeover would be forced: utilities decide whether to join and the authority’s role is to offer options that, in his view, protect customers and allow access to funding not available to single utilities.

No formal motion or vote was recorded. Jeff said he would return for further discussions when more council members, including the mayor, can attend and when the group can consider a resolution to dig deeper into the numbers. The meeting adjourned without action on a merger or a referendum.