Breaking News; 8 found dead as Pigeon Forge taking extra steps to treat water as flooding debris fills Douglas Lake

Breaking News; 8 found dead as Pigeon Forge taking extra steps to treat water as flooding debris fills Douglas Lake

 

PIGEON FORGE, Tenn. (WVLT) – Crews with The City of Pigeon Forge said Friday that the impact from Hurricane Helene has brought the dirtiest water they’ve ever seen.

The city’s utilities serve around 15,000 customers, pumping around five million gallons of water out of Douglas Lake every day. From there, the water heads to the city’s treatment facility, where employees make sure the water is safe to use.

Previous Coverage: TVA installs mile-long boom to gather flood debris in Douglas Lake

The department said Monday, it started noticing the water was dirtier than normal. Since then, it’s only gotten dirtier.

“So the water coming in contains all the runoff that we’ve seen from the storm, so it’s taken a little bit more to treat it, but we’re still able to do so,” Water Plant Supervisor Kevin McMahan said.

McMahan and his employees use a turbidity scale to measure how much stuff is in the water heading into the plant. Normally, Douglas Lake water sits at about an eight or ten on the scale. Now, McMahan said it’s registering closer to 400 or 500.

McMahan also said treating the dirtier water takes extra steps, but so far, things are operating fine.

“It is a challenge; it’s taking a little bit extra to treat it, our coagulant dosage has gone up in order to do that,” he said. “But so far, we’re able to treat it, and our filters are looking good.”

Going forward, McMahan said employees will continue to monitor the water coming into the plant. At this time, though, he’s not even sure they’ve hit the dirtiest part of the lake as more debris flows downstream.