Caryville-Jacksboro water contamination: Fuel-tainted runoff enters utility system, official says

What This Story Is About

• Fuel-contaminated soil washed into a sinkhole during heavy storms, tainting the underground water supply for parts of Campbell County.

Why It Matters

• Nearly 500 Caryville-Jacksboro Utility customers are reporting diesel-smelling tap water, leaving homes and businesses without safe water for drinking, cooking, or cleaning.

What Happens Next

• The utility district is flushing hydrants and sampling the full system, with an all-clear possible as early as Saturday afternoon — or as late as Monday.

For Context

• The contaminated soil came from a gas station under construction where oil, diesel, and gas had accumulated in the ground over time.

CAMPBELL COUNTY, Tenn. (WVLT) - Heavy storms washed fuel-contaminated soil into a sinkhole and into the underground water supply serving parts of Campbell County, leaving Caryville-Jacksboro Utility customers with tap water that smells of diesel, the utility’s executive secretary and general manager said Friday.

Nearly 500 customers called to report the smell. The utility serves approximately 5,500 total customers, and the affected plant supplies water to roughly a third of them, according to Frank Wallace, executive secretary and general manager of Caryville-Jacksboro Utility District.

Wallace said contaminated soils — ground where oil, diesel and gas had accumulated over time — were stored at a gas station under construction. Recent heavy storms, particularly afternoon and nighttime events, caused water to leach from that area, carry the contaminated runoff downhill, into a karst depression and into the underground aquifer.

“As soon as we found out what it was, we shut the plant down,” Wallace said. “We immediately started flushing all of our hydrants in the system, where affected water would have flown out too, and started sampling.”

Wallace said crews are sampling the entire system — not just the affected plant’s service area — because water can mix and backflow cannot be ruled out.

Wallace said the smell is the clearest indicator.

“The biggest thing, if you turn your tap on and it smells like gasoline — like your service station, you got it on your hand, that’s what it smells like,” Wallace said. “If you shake it up, that will intensify it. And you will know if you have it. If you don’t smell it, you don’t have it.”

Amanda Baker, owner of Manahouse Coffee in Jacksboro, said she could not use her espresso machine or ice machine and had to haul bottled water in from a neighboring town to wash dishes and hands.

“We cannot use our espresso machine at all. We can’t use our ice machine,” Baker said. “We had to instantly start scrambling to try and find some sort of way to be able to wash dishes, rinse dishes, wash our hands. And it was kind of scary.”

At least one of Baker’s employees drove to a family member’s home in Knoxville to shower. Baker said she chose to stay open despite the disruption, sourcing water and ice from neighboring counties.

Baker also raised concerns about how the community learned of the contamination.

“The fact that the community found out before they were actually told about it by the proper authorities — I feel like there’s something there that needs to be fixed,” Baker said.

The utility district said an all-clear could come as early as Saturday afternoon if testing goes smoothly. If not, customers could be without safe tap water until Monday.

Where to pick up bottled water

Bottled water is available at the following locations for affected customers:

• Jacksboro Fire Department — 585 Main St, Jacksboro, TN 37757
• Town of Caryville City Hall — 4839 Old Highway 63, Caryville, TN 37714
• Jacksboro Middle School — 150 Eagle Cir, Jacksboro, TN 37757