Historical Overview up through July 2025
Welcome to this Substack, which will serve as a living archive of our community’s ongoing struggle with Central States Water Resources (CSWR), the private utility that now operates the aging water treatment plant in the River Rest subdivision in Williamson County, TN.
This first post will be a very broad look at the history of this relationship. Subsequent posts will go into more detail.
In December of 2021, CSWR purchased the water treatment facility known as “Cartwright Creek.” Built in the 1970s, the facility was only expected to last 30 years. The previous owner did not maintain the facility and it fell into disrepair, resulting in many instances of sewage leaking into our neighborhood over the years. CSWR knew the facility was in disrepair when they purchased it and claimed they would fix it. They also promised to repave Recreation Road, which is owned by the River Rest HOA and has been destroyed by Cartwright Creek (and now CSWR) trucks. We were also told to expect a rate hike of about 5%.
The intervening years have brought more instances of sewage leakage which have been band-aided over. The underlying problem of a dilapidated system remains unaddressed.
The Tennessee Public Utility Commission (TPUC) (TPUC) is the government body that limits what private utility companies can charge. In July of 2024 CSWR petitioned TPUC for a rate hike of over 100%. This hearing took place in February of 2025 and after much public testimony and advocacy from the Attorney General, that petition and rate amount was denied by TPUC, and instead Limestone was directed to implement a lower rate increase to take effect in 2 parts.
The first rate increase was effective May 1, 2025 and was set to recover 50% of Limestones revenue loss. The second rate increase is to be effective May 1, 2026 to recover the remaining revenue loss and is contingent on Limestone supplying appropriate documentation by March of next year. This translates for a 3 bedroom home for example as follows: previous monthly cost $46.50 (excludes 7.50 surcharge that was being added to final bill) and the newly approved current cost of $70.00. (surcharge has been removed entirely) the rate schedule is available on page 148 and 149 of the document "Order Setting Utility Rates"
On July 15, 2025, TN State Representative Gino Bulso and County Commissioner Drew Torres hosted a town hall event in response to constituent complaints about the rate hike and lack of quality service from CSWR. Community members had many questions and the CSWR representative gave entirely unsatisfying answers. However we did learn that two new subdivisions have been approved to be built and added on to the already-failing facility.
On July 24, 2025, residents discovered an active sewage leak flowing into Cartwright Creek which feeds into the Harpeth River. The following video captures what has become an all-too-common reality for our community. As we continue documenting these incidents, we hope to shine a light on the systemic neglect and demand real accountability.
There have been a few news stories covering this incident:
You can subscribe to this substack to receive updates regarding CSWR and their relationship with the Grassland community. Please contact me or any River Rest HOA board member if you have additional information that we could share with the community.