The Maryville Daily Times has an update on all the work by the City of Alcoa and the City of Maryville to provide water for residents and the success of customer conservation efforts.

With the new pipeline running from the impounded part of Little River, Alcoa is in better shape. Maryville is still facing problems, and there's no rain in the forecast.

I found this quote from the article to be a little odd:

Maryville City Manager Greg McClain said, “Maryville and Alcoa have plenty of water now. What we’re dealing with are regulatory restrictions. We can get the water.”

Plenty of water? Has anybody gone out there and looked at Little River where the water treatment plants are or gone up what used to be the Y in Townsend?

He goes on the explain:

The city plans to try to get the cfs lowered because Alcoa now has a 16-million-gallon-a-day plant instead of a 24-million-gallon-a day plant. Part of Maryville’s cfs designation is based on the fact that there must be enough water left in the river past the Maryville plant to supply the Alcoa plant downstream.

In this context his remarks make a little more sense, as long as Alcoa would in fact have "plenty of water" downstream. On the other hand, it sounds like Alcoa might have actually, you know, planned for the future when they got their permit.

I don't know the guy, and maybe he's a Democrat and a paragon of progressive government, but "there's plenty of water, it's just a regulatory problem" sounds like more right-wing free market voodoo policy making.

The same article quotes assistant Maryville director of water quality control Jack Graham as saying the previous record low flow for Little River was 51 cfs in 1952. It was 41 Friday. That doesn't sound like plenty of water to me. And no amount of deregulation is going to make it rain or put more water in the river.

As expected, the City of Alcoa passed a water restriction ordinance at a special meeting this morning.

The ordinance gives the city the tools to enforce mandatory restrictions on non-essential water use if there is a declared emergency. (At the present time, the city has not declared an emergency.)

Here are the pertinent details on the new ordinance as passed on second reading:

SECTION 1, That when the flow downstream at City of Alcoa withdrawal operations in Little River at Mile 9.7 is 30 cubic feet per second (CFS) or less, appeal to the water customers of the system will be made through the news media for voluntary water conservation.

SECTION 2, When the flow downstream of said withdrawal operations is 25 CFS or less, water supplied to customers of the system shall not be used for non-essential purposes. For this purpose "non-essential purposes'; shall include but not necessarily be limited to filling swimming pools, car washing, car washing facilities, recreational facilities and watering of trees, lawns, gardens and other vegetation.

SECTION 3. When the flow downstream of the withdrawal operations is 23 CFS or less the amount of water consumed by large industrial customers and large non-residential / non-health care commercial customers should be reduced by approximately Five Percent (5%) of their average daily consumption until notice is given that the restriction is no longer in effect.

The ordinance allows for fines from $25 to $50 for each violation, and each day that a violation occurs counts as a separate offense.

The full text of the ordinance is attached here (PDF format).

The Maryville Daily Times reports that the City of Alcoa will hold special emergency meetings to consider a water use restriction ordinance.

The first special meeting on the ordinance will be at 9:30 AM at the Municipal Building. The second meeting will be at 9:45 for a second reading of the ordinance and presumably a vote. We're guessing it will pass.