Northwest Correctional Complex was called into action Thursday to help assist the City of Tiptonville in saving equipment from damaging floods at the waste water treatment plant.
West Tennessee Regional Public Information Officer Tylee Tracer says a lift station that helps keep the water treatment plant lagoon from overflowing was at risk of shutting down, which could lead to a major disruption in water and waste services to the city and potentially the Correctional Complex.
Around 11:30 Thursday morning, Lake County EMA requested inmate assistance to fill sandbags to be used for surrounding their water treatment plant to protect a vital piece of machinery from rising water.
Tracer says the maintenance crew and inmates from the Neil Rone Unit (NRU) filled sandbags at the NWCX facility, loaded them to a trailer and dump truck, and then transported them to the site, where another NRU crew used them to build a barrier wall around the lift station.
