"Our goal is to serve areas that the old system can’t serve and also provide services to the rural areas of the western part of Rutherford County and the southeastern part of Williamson County," said Larry McElroy, general manager of the Rutherford County Consolidated Utility District (CUD).

Over the last several years the CUD has received requests for water service from residents on Floyd, Greenwood, Bunker Hill, Highway 41-A and other roads because of either poor water quality or no water at all.

"It is our board’s policy to try and get potable water to all residents in our service area who want our service," McElroy said.

The CUD has already built a new pump station on Highway 41-A on the south side of Eagleville in front of Tru-Line Tools for the new system. The pump station has two 10 horsepower pumps that can be exchanged for larger pumps if needed in the future.

"We can expand the capacity of the system without having to upgrade the pump station," McElroy said.

The new system operates at 30 pounds per square (psi) higher than the old city system and thus cannot be connected to the old system. The old system serves 293 customers within the Eagleville city limits. Currently the new system has about 125 taps installed.

The utility district has already laid about 14 miles of pipe for the new system. A 12-inch line feeds water to the new pump station on Highway 41-A with eight and 10-inch distribution lines taking the water away from the pump station. The CUD’s water comes from Percy Priest Lake. The utility district treats the water and chlorinates it and adds fluoride.

From the new pump station in Eagleville, the lines go south on Highway 41-A to the Bedford County line and lead off 41-A onto Highway 99 toward Chapel Hill to the Marshall County line.

The Rutherford County CUD has an interconnection with the Bedford and Marshall county water systems which allows the exchange of a limited amount of water during emergencies.

The new line also goes down Floyd Road to Highway 31-A and turns north on 31-A. Currently the line stops at about Charles Williams’ house but future plans call for the line to extend to the corner of Highway 31-A and Allisona Road then east on Allisona Road to Elmore Road. The new system would have to supply customers in the Elmore Road and Webb Lane area instead of the old system because the extra pressure would be needed to take the water to the higher elevations.

"There is a lot of planning that needs to be done before this work takes place," McElroy said.

The water lines in the new system also extend down some other roads, including Rigsby and Greenwood roads.

The CUD is also looking at building a ground level water tank on the hill on the east side of Cheatham Springs Road near the cell phone tower. McElroy said negotiations are going on now with Johnny Taylor to buy land for the site. The CUD has had a surveyor mark a potential easement for a road off Cheatham Springs Road to reach the tank site. The proposed road easement is around the curve and north of the road leading to the cell tower.

"We looked at putting the new tank on the property near the cell tower, but we were fearful of interfering with the lease held by the property owner," McElroy said. ""We intend to be near the cell tower, just at another location."

The size of the proposed water tank has not yet been determined, but McElroy estimates it would be at least 500,000 gallons. He said the water tank will not be built unless there is sufficient consumption to warrant the expenditure.

The water tank would allow for fire hydrants and would help save on electricity.

"We do not like to install fire hydrants on lines that are supplied by constant running pump stations as is the case with the new station on 41-A," McElroy said. "Secondly, it cost much more to operate constant running stations than it does to have a station fill a tank and then shut off."

Also, the CUD will have to build a second pump station in the new system to be able to pump water to houses at an elevation higher than 1060 feet, which is the elevation the new pump station is designed to reach.

Currently there are three or four houses on Cheatham Springs Road that are higher than 1060 feet.

"We believe we can serve these residents better with an additional pump rather than the two small pumps we now have," McElroy said.

The two small pumps are on the original Eagleville water system and pump the water up to Mayor Nolan Barham’s and another home. The two homes are still on the old system and cannot be served from the new system until another pump is installed.

"Another reason for changing them to the new system is getting rid of some old small water lines that go across farm land and are hard to get to for maintenance," McElroy said.

The city of Eagleville’s original water system dates back to November 1961, when it was officially accepted by Mayor W. H. Dyer. The plant, which was located west of town, cost about $130,000. The source of the water was a 70-foot deep well. The water was stored in a 100,000 gallon tank.

The city later built a 250,000-gallon water tank on Wallace Hill on the south side of Allisona Road.

The plant lasted until after the city began buying water from the CUD in about 1988. An agreement involving the town of Smyrna allowed the Eagleville system to become a part of the CUD system in about 1995.

The town of Smyrna wanted to assume some of the CUD’s water customers in its city limits, and the CUD agreed it would trade customers with the city. So the city of Smyrna bought Eagleville’s water system for the cost of the debt Eagleville owed on the water system and then swapped Eagleville’s 225 water customers and the water lines for customers in Smyrna’s city limits.

The CUD now owns the water tank on Wallace Hill and it remains the sole water tank in the old Eagleville system. CUD also owns two other tanks, one on Whitus Road and another on the Bill Rice Ranch, that operate at the same pressure as the Eagleville system and can be used to assist in the water flow in the original system.

When the tank on Wallace Hill was painted, the utility district used both the Whitus Road and Bill Rice Ranch tanks and let the Snail Shell Cave Road pump station run continuously to serve the Eagleville area.

Since the CUD resumed ownership of the useable assets of the Eagleville water system in 1995, the company has made minor repairs to the old distribution system. McElroy says the utility district plans major repairs and upgrades in the future.

The CUD has brought a larger line to Eagleville with the Highway 99 road project.

"The upgrades to the rest of the system could be done in phases but at some point the line to the current tank would need to be replaced," McElroy said. "There is a lot of galvanized line as well as some small 2-inch PVC line that needs to be replaced."

All of these projects could cost a few million dollars.