Tennessee American Water is providing its customers and the community with an additional update related to the recent 36-inch main break in Chattanooga.

Our commitment to customers is to provide safe, clean water service for health, comfort and fire protection, and we invest millions of dollars each year in infrastructure resiliency. The bypass project that was ongoing when the break occurred has been completed and is fully operational. This bypass improvement is designed to continue service using other piping and avoid significant fluctuations or interruptions. These additional lines allow water to bypass, or divert, from one main transmission line to another transmission line. This gives us the ability to isolate large transmission lines in an effort to maintain water service.

Tennessee American Water is in the process of engaging an independent engineering firm to assist with the evaluation of the main break that occurred. As we shared earlier, during the course of the planned work that was being performed that night as part of the bypass project, workers noticed a large amount of water beginning to surface at a location near but not part of the project. Specifically, the location where the water began to surface was under a concrete meter vault close to the site of the installation of a 36” valve. Our evaluation is on-going and we have not reached a conclusion as to the cause of the main break.

While we are committed to sharing with the community, we note that a lawsuit has been filed against Tennessee American Water asserting claims allegedly arising from the main break. This may impact our ability to comment on issues while we are simultaneously involved in this litigation.

We thank the Chattanooga community for your patience and understanding during this evaluation process.