05/13/2026
REGARDING THE RECENT SEWER LEAK
Email from the Town Administrator to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen regarding sewer leak:
BMA,
I sent you all correspondence yesterday when we discovered a sewer line leak just south of Grigsby Chapel Road along North Fork Turkey Creek. I wanted to send each of you an update of what we have been able to determine at this time and a chronology of events as there is already misinformation being spread about this incident.
On Friday, May 8 around 2:00pm the Town of Farragut received a phone call from someone visiting Founders Park that there were dead fish in the creek. There was no other description of other issues at that time. The employee that took the call put in an email (work order) to the Park Manager to look into the issue. He happened to be out of the office that afternoon and did not see that email until Monday morning.
At approximately 10:16pm on Sunday, May 10, Public Works received an email from a resident in Chapel Grove about a strong smell coming from the creek. That same resident sent an email to a representative at First Utility District (FUD), however it was not received because he spelled their name wrong.
At 7:46am on Monday, May 11 our Stormwater Coordinator was notified of the email complaint and report of dead fish and went out to Founders Park and began walking the stream northward until he found the source of the problem and immediately contacted FUD and TDEC. The problem stems from an area where FUD’s contractor had been working on upgrades to their sewer line and had a rupture in the line. That issue had been resolved as of yesterday afternoon.
If a resident calls town hall after hours or on weekends, there is a message with an on call number they can call to get Public Works to investigate any matter. We did not have any calls to that after hours on call number over the weekend. The message also tells anyone calling if its an emergency to call 911. Again, to my knowledge there were no calls to 911 regarding this issue to bring us further awareness.
The Town of Farragut has an Emergency Management Plan and specifically an emergency spill response plan. These plans give guidance on issues such as these on who to contact during an event and the appropriate agencies were contacted that could help fix the problem and check for environmental issues.
We have already changed our internal processes that will help notify multiple departments, people and escalate these types of phone calls or emails to determine an appropriate response level to the concern. We will also be implementing immediate training to make sure those front-line employees that do take these calls understand what types of incidents should be escalated immediately to supervisors, department heads and/or the Town Administrator.
If you have any questions or additional concerns please let me know.
DAVID SMOAK
Town Administrator
TOWN OF FARRAGUT | 11408 Municipal Center Drive, Farragut, TN 37934
townoffarragut.org | Main: 865.966.7057
