State inspectors said employees of a private company denied them access to a wastewater treatment facility with a history of environmental violations.
Inspectors with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation questioned whether the company would prevent future inspections of its properties.
The wastewater treatment facility is in Williamson County and is operated by Tennessee Wastewater, whose parent company is Adenus, which owns or operates nearly 100 wastewater treatment facilities across the state.
Adenus called what happened a “misunderstanding.” But in a letter last month, TDEC inspectors called it “unlawful.”
The incident happened at a sewage treatment facility for big homes in McLemore Farms — a rural Williamson County neighborhood not connected to city sewer south of Franklin.
Earlier this year, inspectors found violations, including saturated, wet ground from the sewage treatment process on a field behind the neighborhood. Inspectors wrote the system “seems overloaded.”