A plan for extending water lines to the state’s unserved areas was approved today by the House Conservation Committee. Under State Representative Mike McDonald’s bill, local utilities would work together to determine where water surpluses are, and how to run lines to the more than one hundred thousand homes without piped-in water.

“This planning bill is a first step, I believe in the right direction, toward making sure we have adequate water supplies for all our citizens. Other states, as I’ve already pointed out, are doing this, and I think it’s time for Tennessee to take that step too.”

Water issues are at the heart of two disputes with other states. Some in Georgia want to redraw its border with Tennessee to gain access to the Tennessee River, and Memphis Representative Mike Kernell says his city is in a legal battle with the state of Mississippi over an aquifer.

“Mississippi is now wanting to buy water from us, while suing us. So really, we’ve got to get together as a state, on one page, in one direction, to understand and back each other up.”

The bill now moves to the House Government Operations Committee, which Kernell chairs.

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In the Senate the bill is in Senate Government Operations and hadn’t been put on a committee agenda as of Wednesday, Feb. 13.

The legislature’s Fiscal Review Committee staff summarizes the measure as follows:
Establishes a water management planning council in each county. Authorizes counties to form a multi-county water management planning council. Requires such councils, by December 31, 2009, to develop maps showing existing service areas, un-served areas, underserved areas, which public water systems should make economic water line extensions to serve un-served and underserved areas. The plan should also include a forecast of drinking water needs for 5, 10, 15, and 20 years after 2009. Plans should prioritize water improvement needs within the area. All plans would be submitted to the Utility Management Review Board, the Water and Wastewater Financing Board, and the Department of Environment and Conservation.

The current “fiscal note” forecasts $3 million in expense to build a statewide map based on GIS technology, but the sponsor, McDonald, said GIS technology is not mandated by the bill.