Lagoon systems: wastewater treatment plants in Tennessee
76 plants · 31% of the state · 145 MGD reported by 68 plants
Klarifi identifies 76 publicly owned wastewater treatment plants with lagoon systems in Tennessee, 31% of the 243 plants in the state (145 MGD reported by 68 plants). The largest is Moccasin Bend Wastewater Treatment Plant in Chattanooga at 50.56 MGD.
Lagoon systems treat wastewater in large earthen ponds over weeks of retention time, with or without mechanical aeration. They serve thousands of small towns because they are cheap to run, but they struggle with ammonia and nutrient limits, fill with sludge over decades and are the plants most often converted or upgraded when a permit is renewed.
The largest lagoons in Tennessee
| # | Facility | City | Avg flow (MGD) | NPDES permit | Expires | Violations (3y) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Moccasin Bend Wastewater Treatment Plant | Chattanooga | 50.56 | TNR053775 | Jun 2030 | 52 |
| 2 | Whites Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant | Nashville | 32.64 | TN0024970 | Oct 2025 | 40 |
| 3 | City Of Cookeville Department Of Water Quality Control (wwtp) | Cookeville | 10.75 | TN0024198 | Jun 2027 | 27 |
| 4 | Cleveland Utilities Wastewater Treatment Plant | Charleston | 8.48 | TN0024121 | Apr 2027 | 44 |
| 5 | Hallsdale-Powell U.D.-Melton Hill Lk | Knoxville | 6.35 | TN0078905 | Sep 2028 | 44 |
| 6 | Dyersburg STP | Dyersburg | 3.87 | TN0023477 | Dec 2027 | 20 |
| 7 | Humboldt Utilities Authority | Humboldt | 3.13 | TN0062588 | Aug 2027 | 7 |
| 8 | Tullahoma STP | Tullahoma | 2.98 | TN0023469 | Jul 2027 | 6 |
| 9 | City Of Pulaski Wastewater Treatment Plant | Pulaski | 1.93 | TN0021687 | Oct 2027 | 2 |
| 10 | City Of Savannah | Savannah | 1.44 | TN0061565 | Sep 2028 | 23 |
Contacts and project signals for every plant on this list
Klarifi adds verified decision-maker contacts, permit limits, discharge monitoring data and the capital projects planned in each city, filterable by technology, size and compliance record.
Other technologies in Tennessee
Lagoon systems in other states
Lagoon systems in Tennessee: questions
Sources and methodology
Flow, permit and violation figures come from the EPA's ICIS-NPDES discharge monitoring records. Population served comes from the Clean Watersheds Needs Survey 2022. Treatment structures are identified by Klarifi's review of aerial imagery, and capital improvement projects are extracted from published municipal budget documents. Violations are counted over the last three years of monitoring reports.
Data refreshed October 26, 2026.
Wastewater terms: WWTP · POTW · Biosolids · Anaerobic digester · NPDES permit · all terms