The open-mic segment of Wednesday's WGNS Action Line brought a question of "what is the tower looking structure that's being built on Walter Hale Court, off Broad and behind Chuy's restaurant?" City Engineer Sam Huddleston told WGNS that it will be a reuse water tower.
The plan calls for a 194 foot tank with a capacity of 1.5 million gallons to be installed on City-owned property off of Walter Hale Court. The tank should be placed in service within the next few months. It is the second reuse tank to be installed by the Murfreesboro Water and Sewer Department. The first tank with a capacity of 500,000 gallons was installed at the Wastewater Treatment Plant on Blanton Drive.
Reuse water is highly treated wastewater produced by the City’s wastewater treatment plant and approved by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation for reuse for irrigation and other similar uses. The majority of the reuse water distribution system has been installed in the Gateway and Medical Center Parkway areas and a second tank was needed to improve the reliability, pressure and flow. The Old Fort Golf Course, Gateway Island and Reception Center, and Siegel Soccer Park are some of the larger users of the reuse water.
The reuse water has recently be incorporated into a LEED’s designed development on Thompson Lane known as Gateway Village. This mixed use project developed by Swanson incorporates reuse water for flushing water closets.
It is also the reuse water that the Water and Sewer Department sprays onto the large tracts of land such as the Coleman Farm and Jordan Farm in North Murfreesboro. Spray irrigation, drip irrigation, and reuse of this highly treated wastewater is common in many urban and many drought regions in the US. The City of Murfreesboro implemented the reuse system to help manage wastewater disposal from the Wastewater Treatment Plant due to limitations placed on its discharge to the West Fork Stones River. During the summer months, local users are provided with several million gallons of reuse water per day.
