Monday, February 23, 2015

MORE CASUALTIES OF A PUNISHING WINTER: THOUSANDS WITHOUT WATER IN PIKE COUNTY, KENTUCKY.




FEBRUARY 22, 2015

PIKE COUNTY, KENTUCKY. (WSAZ)

Major water issues have been reported in Pike County, Kentucky.
The county says ice and debris are blocking water intakes on the Big Sandy River. That, and assorted leaks, have left more than eight thousand people without water.

Six distribution centers are in place. But most of them are running out of water quickly, as it's being brought in by the state.

According to the Mountain Water District, they have been experiencing affects from two recent winter storms since February 15. 

Officials with the company says there are wide spread outages in the district and a boil water advisory has been issued until service is restored. As of Monday morning, there are more than 13,000 customers affected by the outages, which is about 75% of the customers on the system. 

Officials say their system is currently depleted in water storage. They say this is due to several reasons, including customer use to prevent freezing, leaks on the customer's side due to freezing water lines, intermittent power outages to boost pump stations and ice accumulations, which resulted in the loss of telemetry and the ability to pump raw water to the plant due to ice build up in the river blocking intake screens.

"It is severely limited all of our abilities on the river, all the intakes on the various systems to produce water at this time" says Potter.
Grondall Potter with the Mountain Water District says there have been no major water line breaks since the bad weather hit. He says the majority of the leaks have been on the customer’s side. He also says the City of Pikeville and City of Williamson have been experiencing similar issues, which had limited their ability to produce and provide water for the Mountain Water District. 

Potter says water storage has reached critical levels and will remain that was until providers can producer water and customer leaks had been identified and isolated. They have been able to start producing limited amounts of water, and hope to begin to restore service and check areas for leaks.
The City of Pikeville has also been experiencing similar issues.

When water is restored, officials ask residents to conserve water and that it will take weeks to get back to full potential.

"What you'll see is very low water pressure coming into your line, into your home. So what we're asking again is limited and the source is limited it'll take us about two weeks to get our full reserves back up" says Pikeville City Manager, Donovan Blackburn.

Several fire stations in Pike County are offering water for residents without it.
You can get water at the following places:

Pikeville Fire Station 1
Belfry Fire Dept. Station 2
Big Creek Fire Dept
Blackberry Fire Dept Station 2
Coal Run Fire Dept
Elkhorn Fire Dept
Feds Creek Fire Dept Station 1
Johns Creek Fire Dept Station 1
Kimper Fire and Rescue Station 1
Marrowbone Fire Dept Station 1
Millard & East Shelbiana Fire Dept 1
Phelps Fire Dept Station 1
Shelby Valley Fire Dept Station 1