Franklin, Tennessee has stopped drawing water from the Harpeth River because the river has fallen below the level the state permits for withdrawals. Anyone trying to canoe the Harpeth right now would end up dragging the boat, city Water Management Director Michelle Hatcher told WKRN News 2, which reported on Oct. 29 that Franklin and nearby La Vergne are both asking residents to cut back on watering their lawns.
Neither city has imposed mandatory restrictions. For homeowners in Williamson and Rutherford counties, the request lands at the end of a fall in which lawns, shrubs and young trees have gone weeks without meaningful rain.
A river too low to use
According to WKRN, Franklin officials said the area had gone more than two months without significant rainfall. The Harpeth dropped below the level at which the city is allowed to pull water, so the treatment plant is now running on stored water and on water the city buys.
The limit comes from Franklin’s state water withdrawal permit. When the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation issued an earlier version of that permit in 2015, the joint announcement from TDEC, the city and the Harpeth River Watershed Association said withdrawals could not exceed 20 percent of the river’s flow and could not reduce the flow below 10 cubic feet per second…