Severe storms in Tennessee washed fuel-contaminated soil from a construction site into a sinkhole, then into an underground aquifer in Campbell County, leaving some Caryville-Jacksboro Utility District customers with tap water that smelled like diesel.
Here's what to know
According to WVLT, reports came in from nearly 500 Caryville-Jacksboro Utility District customers who said their tap water smelled of diesel after runoff from a gas station construction site reached the local groundwater system.
The district serves about 5,500 customers in total, and the plant involved in the incident supplies about one-third of them.
Frank Wallace, the utility district's executive secretary and general manager, explained that soil stored at the construction site had long absorbed oil, diesel, and gasoline. Heavy stormwater then pushed that material downhill into a karst depression before it entered the aquifer below.
Crews responded by taking the plant offline, flushing hydrants, and collecting samples throughout the system. Wallace said testing extended beyond the area served by the affected plant because water can circulate through the network, and backflow remained a concern.
More background
At Manahouse Coffee in Jacksboro, owner Amanda Baker told WVLT the contamination immediately disrupted normal operations, forcing the shop to stop using essential equipment and scramble for alternatives.
TCD Picks » Quince Spotlight
💡These best-sellers from Quince deliver affordable, sustainable luxury for all
"We cannot use our espresso machine at all. We can't use our ice machine," Baker said. "We had to instantly start scrambling to try and find some sort of way to be able to wash dishes, rinse dishes, wash our hands. And it was kind of scary."
Baker also said that one employee drove to a family member's home in Knoxville to shower.
Wallace said the smell was the most obvious sign that the water had been affected.
"The biggest thing, if you turn your tap on and it smells like gasoline — like your service station, you got it on your hand, that's what it smells like," Wallace said.
What's being done?
According to Wallace, the utility shut down the plant as soon as crews determined the source of the contamination.
"As soon as we found out what it was, we shut the plant down," Wallace said, according to WVLT. "We immediately started flushing all of our hydrants in the system, where affected water would have flown out too, and started sampling."
By Saturday afternoon, Aug. 15, Wallace said he and his team had met with the state and that the samples were cleared, though the system would still reopen in zones.
Once an area was cleared, residents were told to flush their own plumbing by letting water run for five to 20 minutes. Bottled water was also made available for affected customers during the response.
Baker said communication problems made the situation even more frustrating.
"The fact that the community found out before they were actually told about it by the proper authorities — I feel like there's something there that needs to be fixed," she said.
Get TCD's free newsletters for easy tips, smart advice, and a chance to earn $5,000 toward home upgrades. To see more stories like this one, change your Google preferences here.
