Water Treatment Plant Won’t Be Fixed Until End of May: Dean

One of Nashville’s two water treatment plants will remain out of commission through the end of May. Nashville Mayor Karl Dean says he expects the Harrington Plant to be fixed by the end of the month. In the meantime, Dean says the city’s water conservation efforts are paying off.

On a normal day in May, the Nashville area uses more than a hundred million gallons of water. Officials say right now people are using much less – about seventy-five million.

That’s allowed Metro’s water reserves to resurge after plunging last week. Mayor Dean says people still need to hold off from watering yards or washing cars, but outside that, water use could be close to normal.

“This should not interfere with tourism, this should not interfere with convention business, this should not interfere with much of peoples’ normal day-to-day lives. Our expectation is that we will have this thing done by the end of the month, and I can tell you people are working very hard.”

Workers still have huge amounts to do before Harrington Water Plant is restored. They have to overhaul the three-level plant’s entire electric system, as well as clean and disinfect a 9-million-gallon water tank. They also have to get back several massive motors that were shipped offsite for repair.

Top: Workers clean out the so-called “power house,” site of the Harrington plant’s generators.

Middle:The plant was almost completely submerged at the height of last week’s flooding.

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Bottom: The pictured room should overlook a pit full of powerful motors, which are completely underwater in this photo from last week.

EXTRAS:

As of Thursday morning, Metro water reserves are at 90 percent, up substantially from a low last week of less than 40 percent.

Metro has established water connections to boost its supply by way of Wilson County and Madison, and will set up two more via Harpeth Valley before the end of this week.

Officials say they’re ready to start shipping out bottled water for distribution in the event Nashville’s other water treatment plant at Omohundro also goes offline.