Amid the rising concern about the quality of water coming from the Taft Water Treatment, several elected officials visited the water plant. Rep. Ron Travis of District 31 along with field representatives from the office of U.S. Rep. Scott Desjarlais (Isiah Robinson, Becky Moon, and Shirley Pond), visited the Bledsoe County Correctional Complex (BCCX), where the Taft Water Treatment Plant is located.
They toured the facility and viewed its operations early Tuesday morning.
TDOC officials said, "All officials present for the tour commended BCCX staff for the exemplary and praised them for the high standard at which they operated the Taft Water Treatment Plant. Rep. Travis, who even sampled a glass of water from the treatment plant, said, 'This in an incredible operation TDOC and BCCX staff have going here. It appears to be very beneficial for everyone.' He also went on to state that it was the 'best glass of water he’d ever had.'
”The Taft Water Treatment Plant was transferred to the Tennessee Department of Correction from the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services in July of 2012. Since the acquisition of the water treatment facility, BCCX staff have made many improvements including rebuilding the filter beds, backwashing on-site water lines, cleaning the water storage tanks, changing to ferric chloride, and began utilizing liquid chlorine bleach.
"The water treatment facility has been 100 percent compliant for the past 18 months and received a numerical score of 94 from the Tennessee Department of environment and Conservation earlier this spring."