WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:30 — 1,023.9KB)
Brown County Water Utilities and the Nashville Town Council reconvened in court after the private water company filed a federal lawsuit against the Nashville Town Council in June. Brown County Water Utilities alleges the town encroached on their service area when it annexed Firecracker Hill last year. The parties returned to court yesterday, after taking a brief hiatus in the case over the holidays.
The lawsuit came after the town of Nashville signed an agreement with Big Woods Brewing Company, to provide water to the company’s newly proposed brewery site, called Hard Truth Hills. Big Woods currently uses 30% of the water in Nashville, making the brewing company the city’s largest single customer.
Hard Truth Hills is estimated to consume approximately one million gallons a month, according to court documents. Big Woods Brewery, which owns Quaff On, is estimated to increase its water consumption to five times its current amount, according to the Brown County Democrat.
Brown County Water Utilities, a private utility, says the signed agreement between Big Woods and Nashville is invalid, due to the fact that Brown County Water Utilities is still paying out federal loans. Those loans were taken out to construct a new water treatment plant in addition to several other public works projects. The company cited a 1961 federal act stating that service can’t be limited within a company’s legal service boundaries. In this case, Brown County Water Utilities argues that Hard Truth Hills is within its service boundaries area, according to court documents. Brown County Water Utilities is alleging that the city of Nashville is attempting to curtail their service by cutting into their existing service area.
Nashville Utilities is the largest single customer of Brown County Water Utilities, according to court documents. Brown County Water Utilities states that—if they were ever to lose the Nashville Utilities and, by extension, Big Woods Brewery, as clients—it could cause water utility prices throughout Brown County to increase dramatically.
In July of last year, approximately one month after the lawsuit was filed, Brown County Water Utilities spent ninety-five thousand dollars constructing a new pipe system to supply Hard Truth Hills, however, Nashville Water Utilities had already hooked the location into the town’s water supplies a few weeks prior. It would cost Big Woods and Hard Truth Hills developers an additional $100,000 to hook up their water lines to Brown County Water Utilities pipe system. A price which, according to court documents, Hard Truth Hills does not want to pay.
Nashville Town Attorney Jim Roberts declined to comment on this story, as did representatives from Big Woods Brewing and Brown County Water Utilities.
