BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
INEZ — As Martin County waits on news of state funding to address its drinking water system, federal lawmakers have approved $4.8 million to modernize a long-troubled wastewater treatment plant in Inez.
The funding, announced Thursday by U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, is part of a broad federal appropriations package.
Martin County Judge/Executive Lon Lafferty said the condition of the plant has affected both public health and quality of life.
“The plant suffers from decades of aging infrastructure and has essentially been non-operational for many years,” Lafferty said.
“This grant will allow us to modernize the plant and expand capacity for additional homes and businesses. Also, finally, we can do something about the awful odor that our kids and parents have had to endure at our kids’ ballfields.”
Lafferty said the award provides meaningful relief for which he is grateful.
“This is a great help on the sewage side,” he said. “We are so thankful for Sen. McConnell’s work and all the help he has provided in federal funding for the Inez sewage treatment plant.”
McConnell said Thursday that he secured more than $540 million in federal funding for Kentucky priorities in a package of FY 2026 appropriations measures that cleared the Senate and headed to President Donald Trump.He said the funding spreads across bills covering Commerce-Justice-Science; Interior-Environment; and Energy-Water programs, and prioritizes basic infrastructure.
“These critical federal investments in water and wastewater infrastructure will protect public health and ensure Kentucky communities can continue to grow,” McConnell said. “From Edmonson County to Albany and Martin County, modernizing these systems restores essential services, supports local industry and strengthens the quality of life for residents across the Commonwealth.”
While the sewer funding is much welcome, for Martin County it highlights a larger unresolved issue: drinking water infrastructure.
“We need to have our projects funded on the water side to begin to fix our decades-long water woes,” said Lafferty.
He noted the county is awaiting word from the Kentucky General Assembly on grant applications for funding from the Kentucky Water and Wastewater Assistance for Troubled or Economically Restrained Systems (WWATERS) program. The county’s water and sanitation districts have 12 WWATERS grant applications pending. Together, the projects total nearly $40 million.
The Kentucky Infrastructure Authority (KIA) administers the program. KIA scored the applications and submitted ranking lists to the Legislative Research Commission Dec. 1 for referral to the Interim Joint Committee on Appropriations and Revenue.
State law governing the program is specific: “…all moneys in the [WWATERS] fund shall be allocated by the General Assembly for and dedicated to providing funding for both capital and non-capital expenses for eligible projects by public water or wastewater systems, as evaluated and scored pursuant to KRS 224A.320.”
According to KIA’s own analysis, disclosed during a November meeting and reflected in its official ranking list, Martin County’s scoring outranks all but one project statewide.
In the WWATERS program’s first year, Martin County received no funding due to scoring errors and omissions that artificially lowered its composite score in the formula-driven rankings. The Mountain Citizen later identified the problem but the funding round was already underway. Neither lawmakers nor KIA considered retroactive funding to correct the error.